Warmachine mk.3 Cryx vs Menoth

Kreznik1
Reckoner (wiped out by combo of Reaper, Chicken and Slayer). 
Dervish (downed by 3 Banes)
Crusader (hit but only lightly damaged)
Redeemer (lost use of right arm)
Choir of Menoth
Vassal Mechanik
A Jack Marshall?

Agathia
Reaper
Slayer
Deathripper
Bane Warriors + CA
Tartarus
Scarlock Thrall

25 point game. I’m using the Dark Host theme and my opponent Creator's Might. 

We’re playing a simple Control Point scenario. No flags or objectives.

Cryx 1

I go first. Have no idea what to do. So everyone runs up, taking advantage of the fog. Agathia casts Hellwrought on the Reaper. 




Menoth 1

Everything runs up. The Choir does the “no ranged attacks unless it’s magic” song. Which is a pain because I can’t use my Reaper to pull in the Reckoner. 

Cryx 2

Agathia upkeeps Hellwrought. 
Everything runs up again. I can’t get to the Menoth jacks which is frustrating. But I move the Reaper to gain control of the left zone while the Banes contest the centre. 
The Scarlock Spell Slaves ??? on the Reckoner, putting a scratch on its paint. 
Agathia arcs Parasite onto the Reckoner (this is where my opponent could’ve used Witch Hound but he forgot and I didn’t know what his Menoths could do). Agathia sits on 1 Focus. I’m never leaving a warnoun without any focus/Fury again unless it’s a sure thing (game end or no way for the enemy to get to my warnoun). 

Agathia Feats, giving all models under her control zone Stealth. 




Menoth 2

Kreznik casts Brand of Heresy on the Banes. Then the Redeemer goes to work. That RAT 1 is a joke since the drifting AOE actually hit more models than if it scored a direct hit! It takes out 3-4 models, 2 having survived via Tough. 

Then the Dervish does its thing, knocking out 5 Banes. (Sidestep is wicked!) The Reckoner goes up and finishes the rest (another 2) leaving only the CA and leader model. 

The Reckoner wants to shoot at my heavy Jacks... but forgot I have Stealth for the round!

Cryx 3

Agathia upkeeps Hellwrought and Parasite. 

Then because the Choir did the +2 damage song, I get a chance to let the Reaper do its thing. I boost the attack to hit, then boost the damage so I can trigger ???  I succeed and reel in the Reckoner. I do my free melee attack and do 11(?) damage. Then I buy another attack and do more damage. 

Then (not trusting my Slayer to finish the job) I run the Deathripper in. It does some damage but not enough. And because I forgot to allocate another focus to it, can’t take advantage of the follow up auto-hit. 

The Slayer charges in to finish the Reckoner. 

The Banes move in on the Dervish to take their revenge and manage to finish it off. The CA does its mini feat and calls back 3 Banes. I use it to jam the Crusader and Redeemer, not wanting to experience its so-called RAT 1 AOE again. 

Menoth 3

Kretnitz upkeeps Brand of Heresy. Then hmmm... I discover that you can move around even when you’re engaged in combat with another model and don’t trigger a free strike as long as it doesn’t leave the weapon range. Not cool. 

Between them, the Crusader and Redeemer finish off the last of the Banes. Ouch. 

My opponent runs a Choir member to contest my Jack zone. 

Kreznitz dances around the periphery so I still can’t get a good shot at him.  

I score my 1st point. 1-0 to Cryx!

Cryx 4

Not knowing what else to do (the Deathripper can’t hit anything meaningful) I charge it at the offending Choir member and kill it. 

The Reaper charges the Redeemer and managed to knock out its right arm (very important as I will discover later!) It flubs its other attacks. Not good. 

The Slayer can’t get around the woods (I forgot to give it Ghost Walk). So just moves into position for next round. 

The Scarlock moves in to jam 2 Choir members and manages to take one out with ??? My opponent is down to 2 Choir members. 

Tartarus charges the Crusader and actually Weapon Masters a decent damage roll to knock out a good chunk of its boxes. But misses his second attack! Argh!

Menoth 4

Krenitz casts Brand on the Reaper. Then uses the Crusader and Redeemer to finish it off. 

He debates having Kreznitz head for the right zone to claim a VP but decides against it, wanting to finish off my Cryx. So Kreznitz finishes of Tartarus. Oi!

That said, thanks to my Deathripper, I score another point! 2-0 to Cryx!



Cryx 5

My Deathripper can’t do anything as it doesn’t have LOS to anyone. All I can do is  run and jam the Redeemer again so it can’t shoot (I sense a theme around here ... must be paranoid :P ). 

My opponent was a bit careless in positioning Kreznitz when he went after Tartarus, trusting in the woods to hamper my Slayer. Then I remember I have Ghost Walk and cast it on the Slayer. I have juuuust made it with my 10” Threat range to hit Kreznitz!

I am tempted to cast Parasite on Kreznitz but my opponent (being the nice guy that he is and also cutting me some slack because I’m a newbie) reminds me that if I do that, he’ll use Witch Hound to move a jack and block my run at his caster. So it’s just warjack vs warcaster with no buffs or debuffs. A real pain considering those are Cryx’s bread and butter tactics. 

The Slayer charges and deals a decent amount of damage but Kreznitz has 2 Focus left and soaks up the damage so only takes 4 hits from the Slayer’s Death Claw. But my unexpected dice rolls for the Tusks deal enough damage that he’s left with only 7 boxes! What can I do?

So I try the Skarlock Thrall. Now it’s the turn of the Choir’s 2” weapon range to backfire and allow my Skarlock to sidle around to get LOS at Reznik to Spell Slave ??? At him. Because Reznik is in melee I basically need double 6’s to hit. Ugh. Oh well. Nothing ventured ... I roll ... and miss! (Of course!)

Agathia has moved way back so she’s controlling the left zone and camping on 3 Focus. 




Menoth 5

It’s tricky for my opponent. I’m leading 2-0. And if he doesn’t get this turn right, he will lose (mathematically speaking due to scenario). He needs to kill off my Slayer, Skarlock and Deathripper. 

The Redeemer goes first, wanting to seriously whale on the Deathripper ... then can’t because his right arm melee weapon is out of action! He settles for a head butt power attack. I get knocked down for 1 Damage. 

He uses Reznik and the Crusader to finish off the Slayer and Skarlock. Then turns his attention on the Deathripper. He hits for 14 damage! A very severe hit ... but the Deathchicken is still left with 6 boxes! 

And he’s out of attacks! His Choir was used up to give the +2 damage boost. I had finished off his mechanik earlier on. And his Jack Marshall had already moved in to give focus to the Crusader!

So it’s 3-0 for Cryx... and I won on scenario despite having only Agathia and a severely crippled Deathripper! How crazy is that?!

Thoughts: Agathia doesn’t really do much for a Dark Host theme force as the Banes already come with Ghostly. Sure it’s situationally useful to give Ghost Walk to a jack, especially if the opponent isn’t expecting it ... and her Feat did save my Reaper from a serious shellacking from the Reckoner ... but I felt she didn’t bring something extra to the table that made it worthwhile (beyond the fact she’s the only caster I own that allows me to maximise my points for a 25 point theme force). 

As others have noted, Agathia can’t deliver the Banes into melee range in one piece. They got shot up before they could do anything meaningful although needing just 3 of them to finish off an undamaged, un-debuffed light warjack just highlighted their potential to do some serious damage before being wiped off the table...

Plus my opponent took it easy on the newbie, taking a fluff list using a caster and units he’s not familiar with. But the turning point was when his caster decided to stay and help wipe out my force instead of going for points that decided the match. Else it would either have ended in a tie or a straight up win for Menoth. 

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