I never did get to try out this build

Talking about Mortenebra got me thinking that I never did get around to trying one of the more wacky builds I brewed up back when the Desecrator was announced.  

It's horribly vulnerable, has no real assassination vectors, and it's slow, but if by some miracle it does manage to get a massive charge going it has a truly ridiculous damage output (unless of course my opponent simply spreads out).

Master Necrotech Mortenebra

- Desecrator

- Desecrator

- Desecrator

Bane Thralls (Leader and 9 Grunts)

- Bane Thrall Officer & Standard

The Withershadow Combine

Bane Lord Tartarus

Machine Wraith

Machine Wraith

Machine Wraith

Saxon Orrik

Warwitch SirenDeryliss

The basic plan is to run up the three Machine Wraiths and use them for target practice with the Desecrators, making me mostly immune to single wound infantry. Then creep forward until I'm within range and unleash hell. It probably won't work, since I'm advancing 5" per round with no real ranged capacity, but what the hell, I'll lose in style.

Mortenebra Vs. eHaley

So I took my Mortenebra list out for a spin, hoping to learn a few things. I knew it was a lacking list, but I wanted to test some synergies (or lack of them), and it wasn't to bad.

• How bad is it really to leave Tartarus at home?
• How bad are the Desecrators?
• Blackbane's Ghost Raiders with Mortenebra?
• Does Mortenebra actually work with infantry?

We sat around talking about SR 2012 for a while (more on that later), but I only get one game a week, so missing out really isn't something I like. I grabbed an opponent, and he put this on the table.

Major Victoria Haley

- Sentinel

- Thorn

- Thunderhead

Squire

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts)

- Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer

Precursor Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts)

- Officer & Standard

Stormblade Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts)

- Officer & Standard

Stormsmith Stormcaller

Stormsmith Stormcaller

Stormsmith Stormcaller

I had a good laugh, as I once again faced something close to my worst possible match-up, but at least I got to face eHaley and see what all the commotion is about. 

Round 1

He ran up most of his army, and it was my turn. I ran up most of my army, and shot two Ghost Raiders with the Desecrators to prevent the Precursors from charging me. I knew I was going down hard, but I decided to make the most of a learning experience, so FULL ADVANCE!

Round 2

OPEN FIRE! And so they did. Half the Ghost Raiders vanished, a couple of Bane Thralls ate lead, but a few bad rolls and the protection of the scather templates actually saw me pretty much unharmed. Then he chose not to feat, which gave me and actual shot at doing something useful!

I popped Recalibration and camped six Focus, then I charged in the Ghost Raiders, swelling their ranks to eight, and I charged/ran in the Bane Thralls. I put a scather template on a pile of Precursors with no real effect, but the second one drifted and killed three gun mages. A couple of sprays, and some positioning, and I was doing well!

Round 3

Alright, next time I know I need to kill Thorn, like before he's put on the table, with a bat, in an alley. The result was, that my Desecrator sawed Mortenebra in the face for a handful of damage, a couple of Ghost Raiders died, my Scavengers both took heavy damage, the Thunderhead wiped a significant part of the table, but due to some poor rolls he mostly wiped his own models, but managed another handful of damage to Mortenebra, and while things were looking survivable it was feat time.

I get it now, it's horrible, but my round wasn't entirely wasted, and the Ghost Raiders we're getting closer to Haley (they were back up to seven due to some fine attack rolls). I spent my round setting up to avoid losing my entire army, but I could see where this was going. Still, I had made it to round four, which was two rounds more than I though I would.

Round 4

Hiyaaa! I survived round four as well! Mortenebra got the Thunderhead in the face, and all but a single Bane Thrall died. Both Scavengers died, but Mortenebra survived, and I actually though I had a chance. The Desecrators failed like you wouldn't believe it, and it took six ******* Focus to end the Thunderhead (Interface is fun though), despite Critical Shred and a Dark Shroud application.

Then the second Desecrator failed as well, and left Thorn alive without taking serious damage, but the Ghost Raiders managed to engage Haley down back, threatening free strikes, and I had most of his army locked down. I was really thinking I might pull this one out of my ass!

Round 5

With most of the armies gone, he took a free strike from a Desecrator with Thorn, and came out with his spear and cortex intact, four boxes left, and going for an injured Mortenebra. Funny thing though, he had to pass Saxon Orrik, and I don't think I've ever enjoyed a kill more!

Sadly Mortenebra died ten seconds later to a pile of assaulting Stormblades, but I made it to round five against eHaley with a pile of crap, and I learned a lot.

• How bad is it really to leave Tartarus at home? Very ******* bad!
• How bad are the Desecrators? Very ******* bad!
• Blackbane's Ghost Raiders with Mortenebra? Wee, fantastic!
• Does Mortenebra actually work with infantry? Well, it seems so.

So Blackbane's yet again proves an excellent choice, even against an army that should have destroyed them with a mere gesture. I had an enjoyable game, fighting tooth an nail to survive, and I managed a control point in a new SR 2012 scenario, which I'll try and write about tomorrow (but it was a lot of information to digest, since I'd seen only some of the proposed changes before).

Screw it then!

I'll try something new tonight, but the fail probability is: High.

Master Necrotech Mortenebra

- Scavenger

- Scavenger

- Desecrator

- Desecrator

Bane Thralls (Leader and 9 Grunts)

- Officer & Standard

Blackbane's Ghost Raiders (Leader and 9 Grunts)

Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

Saxon Orrik

Warwitch Siren

Warwitch Siren

Tournament: Einherjerne - Day 1

I arrived a full hour earlier than I needed to, since a couple of people got themselves lost. I was facing one of the slackers, and he turned out to be a very nice guy, but going for the title of most hungover player I've ever seen.

It was a day of mixed emotions. 

My opponent was a veteran of two entire games, so I settled down for a game of try not to end it to fast. I had an enjoyable game, with Scaverous against eMakeda, but the outcome was never in question. While I didn't come to the tournament to fight rookies, they're the future of the hobby, so I decided to enjoy myself, and I did. In the end I killed him with an unbinding from Admonia, which was a first for me, and it was on to round two.

This is when it hit the fan. Due to the character restriction I couldn't bring a good Terminus list and play around with Scaverous at the same time, so when I was faced up against Retribution I knew I was doomed. Mortenebra would be destroyed, so I settled for learning some more about Scaverous while I took my beating. It was a Ravyn list so I threw everything I had forward and hoped for the best.

Scaverous vs. Ravyn

It took him three MHSF shots to neuter my Arc Nodes, and both Sirens were lost to sacrifices I need to make. The entire WSC and Rorsh couldn't shoot the Destor Thane, so Brine had to step in as well, and I wasted fourteen points worth of army to destroy a single cavalry solo. Then I missed the range on a charge with Tartarus and I knew I was done for.

Amazingly his dice decided we should go another round, and my casualties were fairly limited. I actually had a shot at doing this, so I took it. TK a few models, TK Ravyn, Icy Grip Ravyn, Feast or Worms Ravyn, and forget to TK my Bane Thrall Officer into range (sigh). I did get one Bane Thrall on her, after I shot her with three Dark Fires, and the Feast of Worms plinked a few boxes of her as well, so if I rolled well on the single Bane Thrall I could still do it.

Guess what, I didn't. While I came closer than I would have thought possible, I lost as I should, and went on to round three. I can't say I enjoyed the game all that much, since I knew I was doomed, but at least my opponent was a nice guy, and I sort of owed him for our last game, in which he accidentally shot and killed his own caster.

Mortenebra Vs. The Harbinger

While both my opponents were great people, I was having a bad day in general. My first game was a slightly advanced practice game, and my second game was lost before the first dice hit the table. I know I intentionally brought a weak build to produce better games, but being two thirds through the day without a good fight, left me slightly bitter. I also came to the conclusion that character restriction is an impressively bad idea, that works just as piss poorly in Warmachine as it does in Warhammer.

With that in mind, I faced my third opponent who turned out to be a rookie Menoth player. I know he's been an impressively successful Warhammer player, but he has less than ten games under his belt, so while he had some impressive skill for such a new player, it just wasn't enough. The Harbinger list was actually quite well suited to handling my Mortenebra list, so I put that on the table to make things a little interesting.

He managed to surprise me, and he actually scored a control point, but The Harbinger got within 19.5" of a Scavenger, and he didn't feat. If he had popped his feat I would have been in trouble, since no Scavenger survives Overrun + Charge against POW 14 hits (it actually dies on average dice), but being new he had so many things to keep track of, that he forgot about Overrun (I made sure he knew, and gave him a walkthrough of my army and tricks, but being new is hard).

My Scavenger beaked The Harbinger with Focus left to spare, and the day was over. I did some peeking at the other tables, and one of the complete rookies from my last tournament was winning his third game, so I latched on to that (and the opportunity to add one to my beaker-score), and called the day acceptable.

Summary

I did learn a few things today, and I've got Rorsh & Brine figured out (all I had to do was write REMEMBER TRANSFERS on the back of each base), but I don't like thirty five point games, and I loathe those character restrictions.

I've got in my ten games (in total) with Scaverous, but I just can't get him to work the way I would like. There's no doubt in my mind that he's a fantastic caster, but I find his style produces the same kind of annoying games that pDenny does, and he requires the perfect setup to run smoothly, which tends to lead to boring lists.

I still can't get around the sad fact that I need Terminus as a backup caster. Terminus covers just about every bad match-up we have, and he produces exactly the kind of games I prefer. My opponent gets to kill, main, and burn my army to cinders, and I end up winning. My opponent has fun smacking me around, and I win the game, which means he has as good a game as I can deliver without loosing, and that means a lot to me.

Tomorrow is another day, and maybe it will bring some close and interesting games, so I can either lose some close games, or get a few more notches on the beaker-score. Edit: After giving it some thought, I'm pretty sure I would have enjoyed the day completely, IF I could have brought Terminus to the table, so I could have played a serious game in between noob-stomps. I guess that's what I'll do next time.

Tournament restrictions: Solved

I solved the character restriction issue (for the tournament this weekend), by deciding to ignore it. If I field Mortenebra as my second caster, I can have a fully functional army with no characters at all (and I've been thinking about giving her some table time anyway). That leaves me unlimited access with any other caster, which sounds a lot better to me.

Master Necrotech Mortenebra [35]

- Helldiver

- Scavenger

- Scavenger

- Stalker

- Harrower

- Harrower

Warwitch Siren
Warwitch Siren

Master Necrotech Mortenebra [50]

- Helldiver

- Helldiver

- Scavenger

- Scavenger

- Stalker

- Harrower

- Harrower

Satyxis Raiders (Leader and 9 Grunts)

- Sea Witch

Satyxis Raider Captain

Warwitch Siren

Warwitch Siren 

While the more powerful non-tier setups would be better, they would hog an important character, so my Satyxis Raider build will have to do. It's not exactly a poor build, so it should do fine (even if I'm a bit rusty with Mortenebra at the moment).

Spotlight: Master Necrotech Mortenebra

Master Necrotech Mortenebra has a special place in my heart. The Overseer is a place where I champion the odd models and maligned options, so getting the opportunity to flaunt a devastating build, that just happens to fly in the face of every bit of Internet wisdom in existence, is simply priceless.

The first thing you'll notice when doing a search on the Privateer Press forums, is an overwhelming love for Mortenebras Tier list, and since I was quite new when I discovered Mortenebra, I jumped on the wagon, and bought a pile of Helljacks.

Master Necrotech Mortenebra, an architect of Cryx’s war industry, has emerged from the smoke and soot to lead her ‘jacks to war.

It was a horrible experience, with a clumsy list of heavies stumbling about, trying to exploit mistakes my opponents didn't make, and I soon realized that whenever someone tells you that Mortenebra can fight an attrition battle, you should smack him in the mouth. I won two games, then I lost two games, and then I realized I was using a scalpel as a club, attempting to bludgeon where I could simply slice.

I sat down and put on my thinking cap, and while I was doing that I was spectating a game. The Cryx player was doing some amazing tricks with Helldivers (slams & reverse charges), and something just clicked: Mortenebra can make them do that for free. Privateer Press noticed my interest, released the Scavenger, buffed the Stalker, and caused the birth of an abomination: Non-tier Mortenebra.

Master Necrotech Mortenebra: Abilities

Mortenebra is a very fragile caster, placed on a medium base, with nothing to protect her, except immunity to knockdown. That sounds bad already, but then we add the fact that she runs herself dry on Focus every turn, and it all goes to hell. It basically boils down to this: if they can see her, they can kill her. As always you can go to Battlecollege to get the specifics.

Master Necrotech Mortenebra: List construction

Running Mortenebra with her Tier list is possible, and several people do very well with it, but I find the non-tier option to be such a powerful choice, that I cant see ever going back.

When I introduced the non-tier Bonejack list, it raised a few eyebrows, but it was considered nothing but an entertaining experiment. A few months later I was told, that several people were very pleased, that my flying circus of doom didn't make an appearance at the Danish Masters. It includes Helldivers (2), Scavengers (2), Stalkers (1), Harrowers (2), and Warwitch Sirens (2). In a typical fifty point list, the core build is thirty eight points, leaving me twelve points to play with.

The linked articles should give you an idea about the different uses for the Helldivers and Scavengers, while the Stalker is kept in reserve for assassinations against warlocks, or if the Scavengers fail. The Harrowers castle forward, providing a safe place for Mortenebra (this is extremely important), and either clear drop zones for the Scavengers (using their Mortifiers), or exploit Thresher and Overrun to assassinate careless casters.

The real magic of this list is found in the remaining twelve points, which allows Mortenebra a host of options she lacks in her Tier list. I've tried out a couple of different builds, and these three are the most successful so far.

• Satyxis Blood Witches, Hag, and Withershadow Combine: Granting Mortenebra access to major upkeep removal, a free upkeep, and an additional reroll. The Withershadow Combine also add another ranged element, able to clear out one or two annoying models blocking an assassination. The Blood Witches are able to charge, remove a screen, and then turn incorporeal to allow charges through them. The Hag shuts down Tough, which is otherwise a serious problem for a Harrower assassination run, and this is my preferred setup (add your choice of one point filler).
    An alternative build I've been toying with, is going with just one Warwitch Siren, and including Slaughterborn instead, giving me the ability to clean out two ranks of infantry, before sending in the jacks.
• Bane Thralls, Unit attachment, and Tartarus: Have you ever seen a unit of Bane Thralls charge with rerolls on everything? It's like watching a truck with a front mounted plow, hit a wall of butter at fifty miles an hour. Bane Thralls allow Mortenebra to play attrition, and that makes for some very dangerous lists.
• Satyxis Raiders, Sea Witch, and Satyxis Raider Captain: These girls provide an excellent screen, activate Finisher with Feedback, wreck lines on infantry, and occasionally manage to knockdown something important. In a list with multiple slams and knockdowns, they can really wreck some face, and in other games they can engage enemy ranged models to save your precious Harrowers.

The core list plays on Terminal Velocity, allowing me to perform slams and power attacks for free, with boosted attack rolls and increased range against living models. A friendly Trollblood opponent once looked at our match, and asked me if I wanted to save some time and surrender, so we could go get lunch.

Master Necrotech Mortenebra: How to win

I asked him why I would do that, when I was going to win in about thirty seconds, and he laughed. I can understand why, since I had four Bonejacks and Deryliss left, facing an almost intact army, and Mulg placed by his caster.

• I upkeep Spectral Steel (Scav.) and assign three Focus (Scav.).
• Mortenebra activates: Terminal Velocity & Recalibration.
• Deryliss puts Overrun on a Stalker.
• Stalker procs Overrun.
• Scavenger moves with Overrun.
• Helldiver slams Mulg to the ground.
• Helldiver slams Grim Angus to the ground, inflicting two damage (not transferred)
• The Scavenger charges through the lines, with finisher up, hitting Grim automatically.

Grim had two Fury on him, but with Recalibration up it just wasn't enough. He could have survived with some lucky Tough checks, but one wasn't enough.

Sometime after that, it was named the Flying Circus of Doom, and people began taking it seriously. Fielding the Mortenebra non-tier list is a lot like playing a pinball machine, and in one game against a Legion player I slammed every beast he had on the table. Helldivers slammed, Scavengers flew over the slammed models to slam the second rank in odd angles, and Overrun moved the Stalker into position for a charge.

Master Necrotech Mortenebra: Non-tier

I'm often asked why I find non-tier to be superior, and there's a simple answer. Terminal Velocity & Recalibration allows our different Bonejacks to perform amazing stunts, while our heavies mostly just increase in raw power. When I field non-tier I can include models/units that increase my hitting power with debuffs, weapon masters, and support, while adding some ridiculous shenanigans to the list as well.

Non-tier Mortenebra with Bane Thralls can attrition a Warjack heavy list, which is something Tier-lists struggle against. Non-tier removes every problem you have when facing infantry spam, which is something Tier-lists struggle with as well. Non-tier has very few bad match-ups, and that's what I feel makes it so superior to Tier -lists.

Master Necrotech Mortenebra: Summary

The best thing about non-tier Mortenebra is, that it isn't quite as boring as her Tier-lists. You've got twelve points you can tailor to your specific needs, change around as you please without endangering the list, and use to add the variety that her Tier-list so badly needs.

Non-tier Mortenebra is an incredibly powerful build, that melts right through an enemy army to annihilate their caster, or probes his lines before forming into a steel fist, and striking where he's weak. Nobody can catch you, and nobody can dictate where you fight. You will outmaneuver Legion speed lists and destroy them, you will ignore enemy infantry no matter how many lines they form, and you will teach them to fear.

A little bit of Scaverous on my mind...

I took the Exhumator to a tournament today.

I made him a model last night, and though the picture is crappy phone quality, I think you get the idea. It's a work in progress of course, and the scythe arm looks clunky on the picture but rather elegant in real life. His arms are magnetized so they/he can be posed and transported, and most of the flight stand will be covered in terrain of some sort when I'm done.

Ftaghn?

Now equipped with a model, I noticed that it was two in the morning, and I needed to get up at eight. That left me with little time to crunch the numbers on a list, so I mostly just threw together what I'd been considering for the last couple of weeks, and hoped for the best. Though I seem to be suffering from a strange disorder that makes me ill at tournaments, I did manage a third place and got a shiny new coin.

Lord Exhumator

- Nightwretch

- Nightwretch

- Skarlock Thrall

Bane Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts)

Bloodgorgers (Leader and 9 Grunts)

Croe's Cutthroats (Croe and 9 Grunts)

The Withershadow Combine

Bane Lord Tartarus

General Gerlak Slaughterborn

Necrotech & 1 Scrap Thrall

Ragman

Warwitch Siren

Round 1: Exhumator Vs. pIrusk
I was very unsure about the army, so I mostly just trundled ahead and tried my best not to be destroyed by shooting. The game turned, when a Telekinesis got Admonia within range of his Winterguard Deathstar, and managed to unbind Iron Flesh. Scaverous put Icy Grip on them, and Tartarus cursed them and Threshered up two new Bane Knights, and then the Knights charged. With most of his unit destroyed by Bane Knights, I turned my attention to his jacks. Scaverous had applied a Feast on his Juggernaut, and the Ragman had made it close enough to the lines, that charging with my Bloodgorgers became a possibility.

Feast, Dark Shroud, and Gang had the Gorgers rolling at PS 17, and three of them took down the slightly damaged Juggernaut (I had two more ready to hit, though outside Ragman range), while the rest were munching on random Manhunters or the remains of the WG. That round totally broke his back, and after the following round he gave up. I didn't feel the fight was completely lost for him, but it was his choice and I respect that. I also didn't feel like I was using the list to it's full potential, but I did learn a lot of things.

Round 2: Mortenebra Vs. eVlad
I should have gone with Scaverous, but I couldn't resist a shot at the top five list of bad match-ups. I decided I'd go for it, and prove my non-tier list could rock eVlad, but alas I was sadly mistaken. The game itself was incredibly uneventful, and I was squashed like a bug. I had one shot at Vlad, with a reasonable chance of success, but it didn't pan out and Mortenebra got hit by Fenris.

Round 3: Exhumator Vs. Karchev
I had to take a seat for a couple of minutes, because the room began behaving in strange ways. You know that feeling just before you pass out, or if you're really really drunk and the world just doesn't want to stay were it's supposed to... well I had a solid five minutes of that. Then it passed, and we got down to it.

I never faced Karchev before, and I get him with just the caster I needed to mess him up beyond belief. I learned a lot from my first game of the day, and the poor guy never stood a chance. Bloodgorgers messed up his jacks with the help of Ragman & Feast, while Bane Knights tore through his support on the right flank, and Croe's were making sure he couldn't just swing around to face them.

I got a Nightwretch through, and Karchev was hit in the back by the two Croe's Cutthroats that were in charge range after he was turned around. Watching two grunts carve about half of Karchevs hitpoints was fun, and charging him with my shiny new WSC brand Seether (Again with Feast & Ragman) took out some more vital systems. He pondered his options for a while, and the gave up, as he couldn't escape Croe's, and had no chance at taking down the Exhumator behind the wall of angry Bloodgorgers.


Post-game Thoughts: I'll go through this more thoroughly in the coming days, but these are my initial thoughts on the army composition, and Lord Exhumator Scaverous.

I had way to much infantry. I know it's awesome, but moving 45 models around is tough when you're under a time limit. That means something must go, and I think it's going to be my Bane Knights. I ordered the Exhumator to use the models and units I otherwise wouldn't, and one of my melee units has to go. The Exhumator also needs protection, and a wall of steady trolls is just what the doctor ordered. With the points left over by the Knights and Tartarus, I can put in Gorman di Wulfe, which should allow the Gorgers to munch some jacks. I also think I might bring a Ogrun Bokur, as I was hit by pEiryss in my first game, and had it happened a round earlier I would have been in big trouble. I'll try a few more games without one, as I might be able to keep him safe and save those points.

The Ragman is awesome in this list. It's just crazy how hard Bloodgorgers can swing, when they've got backup. I'm using some of the points from the Bane Knights to put in Gorman, and then I can have three Bloodgorgers take down a Khador heavy. Feast + Dark Shroud + Rust + Gang + Charge, equals 15.5 damage per Bloodgorger, and if the feast took just a couple of points of it, then two of them could take down a Juggernaut on average dice.

The Withershadow Combine also likes that combination. Getting at a jack, and rolling 13 average damage each, will make some fine Seethers. I don't think I can avoid bringing Malice, as that combination is simply to good. With a few points left over, I'm thinking I could use another Warwitch Siren.

Finally I think I might bring in Saxon Orrik. Having Pathfinder available to the Bloodgorgers, Withershadow Combine, or Slaughterborn, could prove valuable. I know I've got Ghost Walk available, but that's a lot of Focus I could use elsewhere, and there are plenty of units that will work just as well with just Pathfinder. Saxon can also help out with the odd warbeast, or shoot some key models if needed.

Lord Exhumator

- Nightwretch*

- Nightwretch*

- Malice

- Skarlock Thrall*

Bloodgorgers (Leader and 9 Grunts)

Croe's Cutthroats (Croe and 9 Grunts)*

The Withershadow Combine*

General Gerlak Slaughterborn*

Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist*

Ragman

Saxon Orrik*

Warwitch Siren*

Warwitch Siren*

* means painted, which is actually a selling point for me. With the whole marriage, honeymoon, apartment, and countless other things to do, I'm not going to have much time for painting. The Bloodgorgers are actually 6/10 done as well, and Malice just needs a touch up, so that means 4 Bloodgorgers, Exhumator, and Ragman to paint. That's a huge amount of time saved.

Scaverous in the house...

He arrived in box that looked like a fat lady on the bus sat on it. Despite the crushed box, the model survived, and the Talos Pain engine I'll be using to convert his sorry ass, was intact as well. There is one thing bothering me though, because this parcel was shipped a week after my Wrath book, which has not yet arrived.

Either way, I'll be trying him out tomorrow, If I can manage to assemble something that can actually be used in a tournament (non-painted). As my main, I'll be bringing the non-tier Mortenebra, as hope for some good match-ups, so I won't have to put Scaverous/Terminus on the table. I have enough experience with Terminus, and none with Scaverous, so either would be a poor choice.

Mortenebra
- Deryliss
- Helldiver
- Helldiver
- Scavenger
- Scavenger
- Stalker
- Harrower
- Harrower
Blood Witches (Leader & 5 Grunts)
- Blood Hag
Withershadow Combine
Gerlack Slaughterborn
Warwitch Siren

This should allow me to make some crazy assassinations, with Gerlack under Recalibration to clear a path through the first line of infantry. Horde armies should be easier to handle, with a way to ignore tough, and an infantry unit with two attacks each, and gang. As far as I can tell, the only match-ups I should really fear, is a true tank caster. That also means, that my backup list needs to be able to handle just that. I'd really like it to be Scaverous, but I'm not sure I've got time to put him together.
_______________________________________________________________

Mortenebra musings...

Every time I look at those Blood Witches in my list, I doubt my decision to include them. Then I think a little bit about it, and decide they'll stay. The thing is, that bringing them dilutes what the army does, and I really should just bring my secondary army to handle a bad case of "the Tough". In order to convince myself, I began thinking about ways of using the Blood Witches, to support the way Mortenebra plays.

I've not exactly thought this through yet, so I really doubt this will be any kind of comprehensive list. The first thing that came to mind, was to go through the special abilities/weapons, and think up at least one way of using them for each.

Blood Razor: It's a magical weapon, and Mortenebra could really use a few of those. In addition they get some very useful attack options, though they only function during their activation. This will free up the Warwitch Sirens to power boost, and remove that hard decision between boosting and clearing out models.

• Blood Mist; Detonating victims to create 3" clouds, seems like a useful option. This ability is enhanced, by not being limited to enemy living models, which means that the witches can stab each other. Stabbing each other creates clouds, and gives Mortenebra a place to hide. If things aren't going well, this might very well save her.
• Death Strike; Very useful ability, though quite weak. This allows Blood Witches to detonate living models, and cause damage rolls on nearby enemies. During Recalibration, this ability will devastate light infantry, and take it's toll on medium infantry as well. In addition it has synergy with "Blood Shadow".
• Dispel [Hag only]; Dispelling upkeep spells is fun. Don't be afraid to hit your own models, as getting rid of a debuff is often worth a bit of damage/loss. No need to think up a way of using it here, as it's a great tool to have available.

Blood Shadow [Hag]; So we go incorporeal for a round, and everyone knows that makes them harder to get rid of. It also makes it possible to charge through them... Assuming we're having a hard time getting through a layered defense, we can use Blood Shadow, charge in, clear the first layer, and poke a bit at the second layer with death strikes. Then our Harrower can charge through the opening, straight through the incorporeal witches, and do it's Thresher/Overrun on the diminished second line.

Entropic Force [Hag]; No real reason to invent new ways of using this. It's why I'm bringing them in the first place. Do make sure, that you get her in range before Threshering a unit of Kriels.

So what can they do...

• Defend Mortenebra
• Remove Upkeep spells
• Remove Tough
• Open lanes
• Tie down shooting units
• Remove key models from play

 I feel better about them already.
________________________________________________________________

Epic Madrak

Today I faced a Gunnbjorn list, and he was beaked to a bloody pulp during round two. This was less than satisfying for my opponent, who also happened to get himself beaked last Monday with Dr. Arkadius. To make up for it, I agreed to let him test out an Epic Madrak list, with a full compliment of take-backs, and a rules advisor on the side.

The sad fact is, that Epic Madrak seems to be immune to Scavengers. The Scavenger can put four incredibly potent attacks on a caster, but it takes closer to fifteen of those attacks to clear out the screens and take down Epic Madrak. It didn't help much that I brought a list of things I needed to test, since even though the Pistol Wraiths did surprisingly well, I was fighting an up-hill battle. (Edit: Turns out my opponent was playing it wrong, so it should have been just 4-5 extra hits, instead of 15... might have made a difference)

Finally the game helped me realize, that I need some way to remove Tough from the equation. It's a poor players last refuge to blame the dice, but it's annoying to account for it when planning a round (not to mention that it can really screw you over on assassination runs). So while I was cursing the avalanche of successful tough-rolls today (since they weren't mine), my mind wandered to my shelves at home.

Next time I'm facing a tough infantry horde I will be prepared. General Slaughterborn with Recalibrate & Puppet master, will be my backup plan when the Blood Hag removes their tough, and Admonia takes care of defensive upkeeps. I had to remove a Warwitch Siren to fit them in, but the free upkeep from Admonia should balance the focus issues quite nicely.

Master Necrotech Mortenebra

- Helldiver

- Helldiver

- Scavenger

- Scavenger

- Stalker

- Harrower

- Harrower

Satyxis Blood Witches (Leader and five Grunts)

- Satyxis Blood Hag

The Withershadow Combine

General Gerlak Slaughterborn

Warwitch Siren

At least it's different from all the other Mortenebra armies out there...

The Wildlife Preserve

It has been brought to my attention, that Scavengers are going extinct across the Iron Kingdoms. In spite of my public relations work on the Privateer Press forums, the Scavenger remains a sadly misunderstood release, so in a last ditch attempt at redemption, I'm founding a preserve.

The Scavenger:  Current score

Scavengers lost: 3
Casters beaked: Grim Angus, Dr. Arkadius, Grim Angus, Gunnbjorn, Gunnbjorn, The Harbinger.

The Scavenger:  A summary

The Scavenger is rated well below average, and this is almost understandable when you look at it. The problem is, that these ratings never seem to take into account, that some pieces are either designed with a specific caster in mind, or to simply exploit a feature or spell available only to a select few casters. There are several pieces in Warmachine, which the general population accept as great additions to certain lists, while considering them poor choices with most other casters. I aim to achieve the critical mass needed, for the Scavenger to take it's rightful place amongst these pieces.

The final obstacle I need to overcome, is the deeply rooted idea, that everything in Warmachine is about raw power and survivability. Whenever the Scavenger is mentioned, the arguments invariably veer toward the point-cost issues, and then without question, the five point Slayer is brought up. Mortenebra is the only caster able to push a Scavenger to it's true potential, and as such it makes perfect sense to include the tier discount when discussing cost efficiency. The main issue with this comparison is, that they're comparing apples and oranges, and they never seem to notice. Thus begins the long and arduous task, of redeeming the Scavenger:

Articles regarding the Scavenger:

• Spotlight; The Scavenger

Battlefield performance:

• Mortenebra Vs. Absylonia
• Mortenebra Vs. Gunnbjorn/eMadrak

Things that concerns the Scavenger:

• Queen of the Broken Coast with double Scavengers
• Harrowers
• Scavengers win Lock & Load Hardcore
• A little thread about our love.

Facing Legion...

Tonight I had my first game against Legion. When I read his cards I got more than a little nervous, and as it turns out I was right to be. I brought my Satyxis Raiders Mortenebra list, and had to acknowledge that I had zero chance at going attrition.

Absylonia, Terror of Everblight
- Harrier
- Nephilim Bolt Trower
- Shredder
- Shredder
- Carnivean
- Scythean
- Seraph
- Typhon
Blighted Nyss Shepherd
The Forsaken
The Forsaken
The Forsaken

Woo boy this was a close game. I messed up badly on my assassination run, and triggered Overrun by killing a Shredder, which of course gave Absylonia two more Fury to transfer (DOH!). Stupid stupid stupid, and she survived my feat + Scavenger missile. I piled as many models as I could in to defend Mortenebra, and then he messed up as well, and activated in the wrong sequence, so his Scythean came at Mortenebra damaged.

It had to take a free strike from a Scavenger, and a free strike with finisher saw to it, that a very impotent Scythean arrived at Mortenebra. After swinging a couple of times to no avail, the Scythean also kindly agreed to plug up the one way he could get at Mortenebra with any other model.

My turn came around, and some heavy thinking had to be done. He had made sure neither the Harrowers, my Stalker, or my Scavenger could be assigned Focus, but Terminal Velocity and a couple of power boosts from the two Sirens allowed me some breathing room.

Mortenebra activates, casts Terminal Velocity and Overrun on a Harrower. Deryliss activates and puts Spectral Steel on the Stalker. Then my remaining Scavenger flies over a couple of models and slams the Carnivean out of the way, allowing the Harrower to charge and trigger Overrun on a forsaken. The slam also opened up a lane for my Stalker, and Overrun got him in a position to charge. One of the Sirens comes up and power boosts the Stalker, and Absylonia is taken down.

Had he not made an activation sequence error, I would have lost. Had the Scavenger only slammed the Carnivean a single inch I would have lost. Had the Stalker not survived a few swings from the Carnivean the previous round I would have lost, but a win is a win, and now I'm not totally lost if I face Legion in a tournament.

I'm having my doubts about the Satyxis Raiders, but they cause so much ruckus that I'll be keeping them in the list for now. This time they swamped his objective in one of the radial deployment scenarios, and kept quite a bit of his army busy for a couple of rounds.
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Epiphany!

An epiphany is the sudden realization of the essence or meaning of something. The term is used in either a philosophical or literal sense to signify that the claimant has "found the last piece of the puzzle and now sees the whole picture," or has new information or experience. Usually an epiphany is followed by the equally sudden realization of ones own stupidity, when one realizes how long it took to spot such an obvious solution to a problem.

I've been racking my brain trying to figure out what I could add to my Mortenebra list, to help me clear a drop zone for the Scavengers. So far my opponents have all opened up their caster at some point, but relying on the opposition making mistakes is a sure way to loose the important games, so I've been building lists, crunching numbers on mercenaries, and until now the solution eluded me.

The wall of Warjacks/Warbeasts isn't really a problem, as so many points tied up in one place means I can pick the rest of the army apart, or simply slam them out of the way if I need a drop zone. The issue I've been having is clearing out massed infantry, shielded by a wall of heavies, in a castle formation. I've thought about Bloat Thralls with Arcing fire, Mercenaries, Warwitch Sirens, Cephalyx Overlords, and pretty much every unit/model I could imagine, and of course I've had the answer in my list the whole time: The frigging Mortifier.

It's on the Harrower, and I've got two of them in every Mortenebra list. I've been so focused on the Harrowers as melee monsters, that I've totally ignored the ability to clear out a drop zone for the Scavengers. Mortenebras Recalibration feat is not restricted to melee attacks, so landing at least one of the blasts should be quite easy against most targets, and I've got the points available to add a couple of Warwitch Sirens to ensure available Focus for a boost.

So now I'm left with solving the issue with true brick casters, surrounded by highly armored multiple-wound models, but I guess the answer will come to me at some point. Either way, another piece of the puzzle is in place, and Mortenebra is one step closer to world domination.
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Pirate Queen Mortenebra; Part 2

I got my game in, against a Farrow army led by Arkadius. I know I read the card, and I even noticed the Crippling Grasp, but somehow that information leaked out of my brain, before I ran in the Satyxis Raiders to tie down a pile of ranged units. The result was the near annihilation of my squad, and one lesson learned. I can't really draw any sort of conclusions from this game, so I guess I'll have to try again next Monday.

In the end it didn't matter much, as he left an opening for a Scavenger, and Arkadius without Fury. I know he read the card, but he missed what flight actually does, and so Arkadius got beaked to death around thirty seconds after my turn two began. I know this game is supposed to be about knowing more than your opponent, and blocking his every angle of attack, but it still feels cheap, and I've been hit by Molik Karn enough times to know how wasted a game feels when you get taken down like that.

To make matters worse the Scavenger is even harder to stop, and most opponents have never even seen the model before, much less discovered the potential of the thing. Unfortunately I have to practice, so I can't just avoid playing with them. I promised my opponent that I'd go up against a Gunnbjorn list on Monday if possible, so he could rip me a new one. More diversity in matches means more experience, so I'll receive my lead enema and like it, if it means learning more about the game.

As always the Stalkers just never pull their weight, so I'll try cutting back to one of them. That means I free up some more points, and now I'll have to find out what I can bring. Maybe some Mercenaries could be fun, to add even more weirdness to the list.
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Pirate Queen Mortenebra?

As you might have noticed, I've fallen in love with Bonejacks. This also means that our infamous Infernal Machines list, is less attractive, since I'll be bringing two Harrowers as my only heavies. After putting in two Helldivers, Scavengers, Stalkers, and Harrowers, I find myself with 12 points left over. I could add another 3-4 Bonejacks, but I got to thinking about units I could bring instead.

The Privateer Press forums had a few articles about this, but the ones I found all discussed Bane Thralls or The Withershadow Combine. I can see that Bane Thralls with recalibration would be devastating, and the WSC is always worth bringing, but neither of those choices really gave me synergy in a light jack assassination list. Suddenly I remembered I had quite a few Satyxis Raiders in my pile of random stuff, and sure enough I found a full raiders squad, with Sea Witch and Captain. Now why would I bring them?

• Gaining ground; Mortenebra lists are actually rather slow when it comes to a general advance. Sure we can slingshot individual jacks across the table, but the rest of the army is doing a lot of walking. Satyxis Raiders may advance deploy, engage from ridiculous distances, and are Pathfinders. In a normal game this means, that if your opponent advances more than ten inches in the first round, he's within Raider range. This could prove valuable in zone control games, or simply to push back an enemy army to deny them control of the table.
• Models.Actions.Focus; is the resource I work with on this blog, and a Mortenebra list is low on everything. It has low model count, low actions/round, and is strapped for Focus. This means that introducing a unit with a high amount of models (something like double the number of a tier list), a high number of actions (again due to numbers), that operates without spending Focus, is a great boon.

 There are also a host of minor benefits that Satyxis Raiders bring to a Mortenebra army.

• Feedback; A point of damage on the Warcaster means Finisher on the Scavenger.
• Knockdown; This will really mess up an opponent if triggered on a free strike.
• Defense; Even more defense sixteen models, that care little about blast damage.
• Damage; Power swell and Recalibration, makes for a lot of damage that round.

Satyxis Raiders engaging his lines, also require huge amounts of M.A.F to remove. He can't really shoot them when they're engaged, since they're at defense twenty, and with good placement he will mess up his own lines and activation sequences, in order to get rid of them. I'll be trying it out tonight if I can get a game, and I'll let you know if this actually works in real games, as well as the ones in my head. In any case it was a nice excuse to get my Satyxis Raiders stripped and based.

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Spotlight: The Scavenger.

The Scavenger received a lot of hate when it arrived. It's expensive, fragile, and requires a lot of resources to be effective, but a few casters can really make it shine.

The Scavenger is based on the Stalker chassis, so it's almost impossible to hit, but that also means we're dealing with another jack that dies to blast damage.

The Scavenger: Abilities

As always the Battlecollege will take you through the abilities. Wait, no it won't, because no one loves the Scavenger enough to actually write anything about him, so I guess I'm doing this myself.

• Flight: The Scavenger ignores terrain, though not when it comes to Line of Sight issues. It also ignores intervening models when declaring a charge, but not when declaring a slam. I'll dedicate an entire section to the things you can do with flight later, but for now this will do.
• Finisher: An additional die of damage against wounded models. This is what makes the Scavenger an effective assassin, and with a bit of support it will take down most casters you manage to catch.
• Sprint: It rarely comes into play, but the ability to leave your nest (I'll explain that one later) to take down a solo, and then return to safety can be pretty neat.

That's it, it has no more abilities. It has a single attack that barely clears double digit PS, is about as survivable as a tough solo, and will set you back four points. It's not exactly appealing, so why do I love them so much?

The Scavenger: Assassinations

The Scavenger needs two things in order to work: Immunity to free strikes, and more speed. These abilities are found on several of our casters, but two of them stand out.

• The Witch Coven of Garlghast: Ghost Walk will clear up the free strikes, and Infernal Machine will handle the speed issues (and remove the need to boost attack rolls). 

This allows you to send in a Scavenger from more than twelve inches away, and several casters will go down to three attacks with Finisher. If you upkeep Infernal Machine on a Scavenger with Admonia, and apply Ghost Walk with your Skarlock, you can actually send in two fully loaded Scavengers, and just about anything will die.

Casting Infernal Machine on a Scavenger, this time not for the +2 MAT, but for the +2 SPD and Terror. Running the Scavenger 18" causing Terror checks to EVERYTHING that got within 1/2 inch of the Scavenger (found here).
-Corpazious

I've never thought about this way of using them, but with sufficient non-fearless models on the other side of the table, this could win you a game. Eighteen inches is a LOT of movement, and many units have average command scores, and a single unit failing could win you the game.

• Master Necrotech Mortenebra: Spectral Steel will handle the free strikes, and Terminal Velocity will turn the Scavenger into a GOD KILLING MACHINE OF UNHOLY TERROR. 

With three Focus, Recalibration, and Terminal Velocity, the Scavenger will put four attacks on that enemy caster (with re-rolls on everything), and with Overrun it will do it from more than nineteen inches away.

The Scavenger: Free kills for everyone 

Usually when an assassination attempt fails, you'll be in a horrible position, and probably lose an important model (or simply lose outright), but with the Scavenger missile you only really lose that one model. This is like getting a free assassination attempt, and even if his caster survives, he or she will be low on health, and in horrible danger.

The Scavenger: Nesting

When I field Scavengers, I like to find them a nest. Their nest should be located centrally on the table, and grant them cover, since defense twenty Scavengers are almost impossible to hit. With sprint you can leave the nest to feed, and then return to safety, and await the opening you need to take down your opponent.

The Scavenger: Slams

The Scavenger can perform some interesting slams.  I don't think there are any other flying slammers in Warmachine, and there aren't exactly a lot of them in Hordes either. While the Scavenger will need Line of Sight to slam, it has impressive range, and enough MAT to do it reliably. It can slam across enemy models, as long as it can ignore/survive the free strikes (and draw Line of Sight), and with Mortenebra it can do it for free (with additional range and boosted attack rolls against living models).

The Scavenger: Alternate casters

While the Scavenger really appreciates the previously mentioned casters, there are others that could have some fun with the Scavengers:

• Warwitch Deneghra: Though limited in range, the debuff queen can send in a Scavenger with The Withering and Crippling Grasp up. This allows the Scavenger three attacks with MAT 11 and PS 15, which should kill several casters.
• Goreshade the Bastard: Shadowmancer allows Goreshade to apply stealth and Dark Shroud to his Battlegroup, which turns Scavengers into light jack versions of Bane Thralls. While he lacks the ability to grant them immunity to free strikes, he has the ability to run them as attrition models.
• Pirate Queen Skarre: Defense sixteen and armor eighteen can survive a free strike or two, and a PS 16 Scavenger with Dark Guidance up, can take down squishy casters. I would probably leave them at home with her, but several others have claimed success with this setup.
• Lord Exhumator Scaverous: Telekinesis allows for fourteen inch threat, and Ghost Walk solves the free strike issues. I've placed Scaverous in alternate casters, because he doesn't have the available Focus to turn the Scavenger into an effective assassination piece.

As you can see the Scavenger is far from the useless piece of junk it's made out to be, but I wouldn't recommend it with anyone but Mortenebra or The Coven.

The Scavenger: Summary

The Scavengers are loathed in my meta, and I'm currently taking down two casters for every Scavenger I lose. They strike from miles away, and leave nothing but broken corpses in their wake, while remaining universally underestimated and ignored.

Spotlight: Helldiver; part 2

Continuing this article, I'd like to talk a little bit more about the Helldiver. When I look at my statistics there's no caster I've lost more games with, than I have with Mortenebra, and in the words of Roosevelt "You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face". This means I'll be trying for more games with Mortenebra, and that means more thinking.

In every game with Mortenebra, the Helldivers have been instrumental to my success, and when I've lost it's been by no fault of theirs. The Helldivers are three points worth of pure gold, with a mind-boggling amount of game applications. I talked a bit about this in the last article, but I'd like to expand a little on the possibilities that a Helldiver brings to the table, particularly slamming.

Slamming. In every game there are models you would just love to slam. This could be a model you need moved, knocked down, or slammed into another model in order to get that second model on the ground. The main problems associated with this move is the resource investment in Models, Actions, and Focus (M.A.F), as well as the problem of angles because the slam is limited to moving directly towards the target. A Terminal Velocity Helldiver solves every problem in that equation.

• Resources: The Helldiver is only three points, and often requires no investment of Focus to perform. This means the Slam is incredibly cheap in M.A.F, and allows you to apply your M.A.F to a kill instead.
• Emerge: When the Helldiver emerges, you may position it as you please in any legal position, which means that if there's room for it, you will get the perfect angle and range for the Slam. Slamming anyone at an angle you choose, makes for some very interesting possibilities.
• Range: The Helldiver can hit a living target within fifteen inches of the burrow marker. This is a range just rivaled by the Ghordson Basher, does not require a Jack Marshall, and is extremely hard to prevent.
• To hit: Will be boosted against living targets, but against DEF 11+ non-living targets it will probably require a Focus. This can be supplied by the Warwitch Sirens, if you really need Mortenebras Focus elsewhere, or if the Helldiver is outside Focus allocation range. If this is happening during Mortenebras feat turn, you can assume that anything without DEF 15+ is going down hard.

Since the Helldivers can strike where they like, and at any angle they like, you can keep an eye out for Warjacks on the edge of your opponents control area, and slam them out of it. This will probably hurt your Helldiver, but even heavies will have problems wrecking the Helldiver without Focus, and will have to spend an action getting up in the first place. In a kill-box scenario you also have the option of chain slamming a caster outside the box (as Rick has noted in a comment, chain slamming only works against casters immune to knockdown), in case you have issues taking him down with raw damage, which will probably result in heavy objects being thrown at your face in real life.

Slamming is such a versatile tool, that having multiple slams in a round with a very low M.A.F cost, becomes a massive force multiplier. Whether you need Mulg out of the equation, a caster on the ground, or room for your assassination piece by his caster, a Terminal Velocity Helldiver will solve your problem.

A special mention should go to Head-butting as well. This is much the same as slamming, but only works against medium bases with a Helldiver. This is a nice option if there's no room for picking up speed to slam, or free strikes would become a problem. Head-butt is fun, since it requires no movement at all, so if there's room for the Helldiver, that caster is going down.

Terror. It's not on the card, but Helldivers cause terror, though not as a game mechanic, but against players. These little homing missiles are coming at him, and there's not a damn thing he can do about it, so either he denies them a charge or he takes his chances on the dice. The most effective way seems to be building a castle, but this dictates how the entire game unfolds, and a predictable opponent is a dead opponent. At some point the Helldivers will get an opening anyway, or just slam multiple models on the caster, and you can send in something else to kill the pile of knocked down models.

Defense. Though I rarely get to use them like this, the Helldivers are excellent defensive models. Most opponents seem to forget that you get to choose the facing when the Helldiver emerges, so you can hit anything within 13-15" in any direction. The two Manhunters I took down for the price of one Focus (had to buy an extra attack) was probably the best hit I've made, but the owner of the Totem Hunter (in a forest, behind my army) made the most memorable face.

Objectives. There's no stopping the Helldiver, and we've already established the merits of slamming. Three Helldivers will clear an objective rather effectively, if your opponent relies on tough single models to contest it. Since most scenarios are simply disguised caster kills, a lot of opponents tend to forget that you can actually win on objectives, and if you keep that in mind it will happen (exactly why I lost a game this Saturday... sigh...). With the great slam angles, you can even use the larger models to clear out a few contesting infantry while you're at it, or just load up the Helldivers with a bit of Focus and have them end up in a position to chomp the last couple of guys.

Threat.  I was playing a game of Warhammer 40.000 a while back, and I had a couple of Grot Missiles. For those of you that are unfamiliar with these, they're cruise missiles with a suicide pilot. They have a massive blast, and are deadly to packed infantry. I'd brought six of them, and I'd launched five, doing a massive amount of damage to my opponent, but I never fired the last missile. A friend who watched the game asked me about the remaining missile, and why I didn't just fire it and kill of some more infantry. I explained to him that "as long as I have one left, I dictate how his army moves". He could never bunch up, he could never effectively charge a vehicle (that requires bunching up), and he always had to think about cover, which would slow him down.

Helldivers are like that, because as long as one of them lives, your opponent has to take that threat into account, and then you control his army. When your last Helldiver dies, that threat is gone for good, so before you throw the last one away to kill some random solo, you should think about how that will allow your opponent to play from there on. No, strike that... unless it's a game winning move, you should never throw away your last Helldiver.
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A lot of excuses...

Well it wasn't that bad. I was having a lot of issues assembling the Leviathans, so it was around two in the morning before I finally fell asleep. About fifteen minutes later a drunken idiot on scooter just managed to avoid killing himself, when he played chicken with a parked car and lost... badly. After the whole mess with the emergency service, the guy seemed to be doing alright, but I was to wound up to sleep. In the end, I think I managed about four hours, and I arrived in Silkeborg with a minor headache. As it turns out, the shop has no coffee machine, and no painkillers, so I prepare for a long day (next time I'll bring my pharmacy and some instant coffee).

Round 1: Terminus Vs. pSkarre; Overrun.
Silkeborg seems to mean Cryx mirror matches, and of course the two Cryx players got to face each other in the first round. To my surprise he was fielding a very nice army of Satyxis (almost exactly like one I'd contemplated running myself, so I had done the math on this build), backed up by two Reapers and two units of Black Ogrun. I had to play very carefully with my Leviathans, to avoid having them pulled in and charged by hordes of Raiders (which would mean a dead Terminus). I was outgunned, outmaneuvered, and in pretty bad shape until he missed the Bile Thrall hiding behind Terminus (teeheee, wings are awesome for more than one reason) and lost half his squad of Raiders on that flank without pulling Terminus away as I think was his plan.

In the end, he had no way of getting to Terminus, no Arc Nodes (he had one, I had one Bane Thrall in range), and no real chance of winning, so he gave me a charge on Skarre. He could probably have played me to a tiebreaker, but he had so many models within range of my purge capability, that it would have been a waste of time. He did exactly what I would have done, and gave me a shot at Skarre, which was very likely to work, but might fail. I've won several games on "sure things" failing, but this one didn't.


Round 2: Terminus Vs. Vindictus; Outflank, Outfight, Outlast.
My headache was getting worse, and since I had to pee three or four times within ten minutes, I began thinking that maybe I should have stayed at home. I was getting a bit feverish as well, and the shop still had no painkillers, but that being said; I just wasn't thinking. I messed up an activation sequence badly, forgot to move a unit to contest a zone, cast the wrong spell with Darragh, and then I forgot about Madelyn Corbeau in the maintenance phase so Terminus was out of range for a gamble (which I do think he could have managed, as I got him to armor 30-something in a last ditch attempt to recover the game).

I was manhandled a bit by the dice as well, but mainly I just played a bad game and lost. I always tell people that blaming the dice is a poor excuse, and I'll stick to that and claim, that had I thought this game through and played my best, I could have won the game with the rolls I received. My opponent was really pleasant though, so I had no issues at all with congratulating her on being the first ever to best my Terminus list (never send a man to do a womans job and all that...).

Edit: I finally found a way I "could" have won this game. I had a Leviathan with a Focus in his back arc, that could have thrown Terminus in the Zone (only used them a couple of times, and never noticed the open fist on the claw today). It was by no means guaranteed to work, but at least I would have had a chance, and nothing could have killed Terminus that round, even prone.


Round 3: Mortenebra Vs. Grim Angus; Overrun.
I'd decided to bring Mortenebra as my secondary list, and as I was out of the race for medals (the good ones anyway) I decided to at least try to learn something, and salvage a bit of the day. I was still feeling poorly, but I just had lunch and a break, so it wasn't to bad. I was feeling pretty cheerful about the game though, because it was the same list I faced last time Mortenebra was up against Grim Angus, and it was the same player, so I knew what I had to look out for this time around.

Exactly as the last time we fought, he mashed most of my army to a pulp, and then took Helldivers & Scavengers to the face. I lost my Stalker to another lapse in concentration, as I forgot to slam Mulg with my Reaper before activating the Stalker, and Stalkers don't survive free strikes from Mulg. In the end a Terminal Velocity Scavenger made four hits of 8-11 damage, and Grim ran out of transfers. I must admit that I'm taking a liking to Mortenebra with the Errata to the Stalkers (though that made no difference here), but now I'm a sad puppy whenever I think about the four Stalkers I've given or traded away. Mortenebra is still to frail for my taste, but I kind of like having her as a secondary list, when Terminus fails me (well... I fail him actually... you know what I mean).


Round 4: Mortenebra Vs. Gorton; Revelation.
My headache was returning with interest, and I was sweating like racehorse. I was matched up against a guy with three losses, while I had a 2-1 score, which made no sense at all, but hey... GRUDGE MATCH! This was my friend I hadn't seen in years, so I decided to let weird matchups slide, and go kick Gorton in the face. In retrospect I should have drawn the game out a bit and given him a chance, because the poor guy just returned from a year long break from Warmachine. He sort of deserved a game where he could relearn some things, but my head was killing me and promptly vetoed that idea.

I'd never faced Gorton before, but heard all kinds of nasty things about him. I won the roll to go first, and crammed my army as far up the field as possible, while castling up to protect Mortenebra from shooting. I'd found in the game before, that having the Scavengers block LoS to Mortenebra worked well, when they were protected by four stealth heavies to stop any rushers, but the shooting here was out of range or failed to hit the high Def. He had to do something, because I would own the flags in round two if he didn't, but Gorton was still way behind, and he moved a couple of jacks just an inch to close. The Reaper pulled in his Wroughthammer Rockram, and dis-armed it. The Slayer was just in range of a Gun bunny, so after he had Spectral Steel applied by Deryliss, he rumbled up there and wrecked it, while getting in line for the punishment to come.

I'll admit that my friend could have used a new set of dice, or maybe a hammer, but due to deployment issues and failing a few critical rolls, he just never stood a chance. I had two Helldivers and a Scavenger ready to finish the job when the Slayer was destroyed, but when the smoke clears from my opponents turn, it's still fully functional. Overrun (Deryliss) on a Scavenger moves the Slayer forward, and Terminal Velocity, Feat, and three Focus on the Slayer means Gorton receives a steel enema.


Final score: 3-1; and I took 6th place (16 players) due to my really poor strength of schedule, but I got to play my friend so it's all good. I think I might have appreciated it more if I had been able to lay my hands on some painkillers to knock the fever down (I'm typing this a couple of hours after returning home, the fever is gone, and I'm feeling fine), but I'm happy I went anyway. I'll try for some analysis tomorrow if I can find the time, but in any case it was great to roll some dice again.
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