Extra Extra! Warmachine MkII 25 point Cryx vs Khador

Hey hey ppls

Ooookay so i will struggle to remember details for this particular battle but I just gotta try anyway… here goes:
25 point battle of MkII pitting my Cryx against Alex’s Khador

Cryx
Warwitch Deneghra
6 Satyxis Raiders
The Withershadow Combine
1 Skarlock
1 Seether
1 Deathripper
1 Defiler

Khador
The Butcher of Khardov
8(or around that) Ironfang Pikemen
Ironfang Pikemen Officer & standard
The Greatbears of Gallowswood
8(?) Kayzay assassins plus under-boss
Beast 09


Alex though he rolled higher then me decided to let me go first
(wrote down in no particular order of activation)
Turn 1:

The seether’s soul drive generated 1 point of focus and ran 12” up the left flank towards the ruins, and the Kayzay assassin band
The Deathripper ran after the Seether but his 14" run catapulted him into the ruins
Deneghra shifted forward off her hill towards the ruins just in front of her
The Skarlock advanced along towards the right to get some cover on that side of the board
My Satyxis made their way over the hill straight towards the Ironfangs
The Withershadow combine sidled up the right flank as well
Followed by the Defiler

Alex
Interestingly Alex fired up Fury on the ironfang pikemen who were way out of my charge distance, and Iron flesh on the Kayzay assassins
Speaking of the Kayzay, they moved down my left flank
The pikemen wobbled forward under their shieldwall
Beast 09 has a heavy boiler- so he can run & charge for free, he naturally ran down my right flank dying to get choppy
The butcher stood stock still

Turn 2

Me
Soul drive on the Seether as per the norm for it though he only advanced further towards the Kayzay, awkwardly he was well out of charge range however
The skarlock leapt out from behind the ruins and attempted to crippling grasp the rapidly approaching Beast 09 but the attack fell short (oh noes!)
Sensing the skarlock’s gibbering cries of woe at the 6 ton wall of metal in front of it Deneghra took things into her own hands and burst out of the ruins she was occupying and crippling grasped the Beast (yay) thus allowing the defiler to trot into 8” range to splurge its sludge cannon at the beast, inflicting about 2 points of damage plus corrosion
The satyxis crept closer to the main Khador line where the Ironfang were camping. Alex was waiting for me to get closer whilst using his Kayzay and Beast as the beatsticks but Satyxis weapons ignore the benefits of shields bucklers and shieldwall so running into his shieldwall would be good for me
The Withershadow combine were getting closer to the Beast 09, nipping at him with their 10” darkfire but only just being in range for it

Alex
He wanted to charge/run the beast so badly but crippling grasp had the Beast in a stranglehold so it got a pokey 2” advance towards the rather happy defiler, corrosion faded before it could take any real effect
Iron flesh expired on the Kayzay thus allowing them to charge at the Seether whom has terror, but the Kayzay passed their CMD check and managed to unload a boat of wtfpwn on the Seether: turning it into a wreck on the charge
The ironfangs waddled further a bit followed closely by the great bears
Butcher upkept fury on the ironfangs

Turn 3

Me
Wasting no time in letting off more sludge on the Beast, the defiler spat at the lumbering Khadorian deathmobile and managed to land what- 6 points of corrosive damage on Beasty
The Withershadows flamed the beast for a grand total of 2 points of damage between the 3 of them, nearly in charge range now, Admonia upkept Deneghra’s CG for her for free on Beast 09.
Deneghra tried to spam venom at the beast and all the castings failed to do anything (booooo!) tbh I really should of cast scourge so then Beast would be knocked down as well as crippled (egg on the face ) but nein: I completely forgot scourge
The Satyxis were almost in charge range but they had to play it safe lest they advanced too near and the pikemen would be able to steal the charge from them.
The random deathripper I wasn’t sure what to do with him so I had him practically stagger out the ruins away from the Kayzay just next to him

Alex
Beast waddled closer to the defiler after taking a point of corrosion damage and thanks to his go-go gadget reach weapon he was just able to catch the defiler and land a hit but it wasn’t strong enough to total any systems, but it did manage to critical freeze the poor thing.
No prizes for guessing what the Kayzay did next: they launched themselves over the ruins and straight at the Deathripper’s back arc, wrecking all but its head and movement…
The Ironfangs took the initiative and their reach weapons and went out to give the Satyxis grief, killing just 2 in the squad thanks to the charge range being too far for all the pikemen to engage.

Turn 4:

Me
Deneghra felt it was time to skullhammer the Khador and charged the pikemen engaging the Satyxis, making 1 kill and stealing his soul for later use… And then popping her feat: really screwing Beast 09’s hope of being around next turn
Spent a focus to shake the freeze off the defiler and splurged more sludge at Beast, but i’m pretty sure it melted a couple more boxes
Then the really juicy stuff happened: the Withershadow charged into combat with beast, dismantle plus charging gave them 4 dice with their P+S 13 claws on Beast’s then (due to Crippling grasp and withering) DEF 6 and ARM 16. Beast was wrecked on the first 4 dice and then I turned him into a Seether helljack for added measure
This was a good time for the Satyxis to retaliate and they did so with deadly results: 3 pikemen felled with 1 of the souls going towards Deneghra
Though the Deathripper was good as dead he did just manage to mangle an assassin to death with its large teeth.

Alex
The pressure was on now, but the Satyxis were wide open for the Kayzay to plow into, the Pikemen officer squad finished off the Deathripper whilst the Kayzay charged in the Satyxis direction and they did their best but only 1 was in range of the charge, his attack fell short of the warrior women.
The pikemen didn’t fare much better, the Withering had really buggered Alex’s attack rolls up but I seem to recall another raider biting the dust.
The officer squad was able to finish off the deathripper (h
For once in the game The Butcher moved to get a better view of the action in the middle of the board, and then casting iron flesh on himself.
The Greatbears were sat right behind the pikemen officer & standard: ever ready to charge at Deneghra who was now exposed to them (at this time I had no idea who the greatbears were, I just thought they were a random unit/solo squad).

Turn 5:

Me
Withering expired!
Undaunted by the loss of withering, the skarlock got out of the way of the new seether’s charge lane and throwing ghost walk on the Seether so it could ignore the terrain whilst charging.
Deneghra applied crippling grasp to one of the bears
The seether of course charged at the Greatbears and barely just scraped being able to hit one of them with its weapons, realising his attacks would be wasted on just 1 bear, I decided to play a dare by electing for a double-handed throw power attack which indeed hit and launched him at the Butcher, causing super-slam damage by virtue of the Butcher’s larger base and causing massive damage which slew the bear and did an incredible 1 point of damage to the butcher himself.
The satyxis swung their chain weapons around and topped another pikeman and a Kayzay assassin, the pikemen was now dangerously close to being gone.
The withershadows drew LOS to the pikemen officer squad just behind the pikemen and their darkfire claimed the standard bearer; 1 soul for the combine whilst a CMD check for the Pikemen (which they easily passed)
Deneghra realising she was in danger, sought cover in the ruins near the Butcher, I took my chances and hoped that the difficult terrain would stop his charge short of being able to reach her to death.

Alex
I can’t quite remember at this point but what I do remember what he did involved another Satyxis dying and a CMD check for the raiders which they passed, and the Butcher popping his extra damage die feat and easily getting into combat with Deneghra, punishing her by not boosting to hit and boosting the damage for a reality demolishing 5 damage dice which in themselves were close if not over 30 on their own plus the Butcher’s own P+S of 16: frankly no amount of over-boost would of saved her.
Though the Seether was autonomous and the combine and satyxis were still around we decided to finish there

Khador 1
Cryx 0

After-battle thoughts

• The Withershadow combine are a powerful trio! Quite possibly one of my best buys considering their potential.

• The Kayzay assassins are evil; nuff said (funny name though).

• I should of back-peddled instead of shimmying to the side in hopes that the Butcher would be impeded enough by difficult terrain to not whore Deneghra.

• Satyxis really do need a Sea witch to get the most mileage.

• The beast was a huge points sink in terms of actual performance; at least I was able to effectively bring my Seether back from the dead via the Withershadow Combine’s dark industries ability when they destroyed Beast.

I inflicted punishing losses on his forces, but gambling with Deneghra the way i did backlashed and cost me the game

sounds like a really close game, and for someone who has jsut started playing Vs some playing since 2001(?). This is what I like about WM.

Steve - you have obviousley done you r research on your stuff and have some very powerful combos. Now you need to learn some enemies tricks.

Alex - What would you have done to make a stronger win for you? It seems like only taking 1 jack in Mkii limits yourself.

Neal Orange peel wrote:

Alex - What would you have done to make a stronger win for you? It seems like only taking 1 jack in Mkii limits yourself.

One jack really does limit you in Mkii. Particularly if that Jack is an 11 point unique that doesn't actually do anything!

In all seriousness though I did need another jack but the list was thrown together out of stuff I had in the top tray of my case.

I was a good close game and I would say Steve is one to watch for the future!

That boy needs to get himself to some tournaments.