Warmachine Battle Report - Cygnar vs. Cryx - 35 pts

It's time again for another battle report, this time pitting Jamar's Cryx against Beau's Cygnar. Beau's List:

• EHaley
• Centurion
• Lancer
• Storm Strider
• Max. Sword Knights
• Aiyana & Holt
• Journeyman Warcaster
• Arlan Strangeways
• Storm Smith

Jamar's List:

• EDeneghra
• Nightmare
• Defiler x 2
• Max. Bane Knights
• Min. Bile Thralls
• Skarlock
• Gorman Di Wulfe
• Ragman

Deployment: Beau won the roll off and opted to go first, deploying from top to bottom: Storm Smith, Sword Knights, Haley, Storm Strider, Centurion, Aiyanna & Holt, Lancer, Strangeways and the Journeyman. Next Jamar deployed: Bane Knights, Defiler, Bile Thralls, Nightmare, Skarlock, Defiler, Gorman, Deneghra and the Ragman.

The scenario for this game was Incursion, in which three flags (the empty 40mm bases) are centered down the middle of the board and one disappears at the end of the first round. At the end of each turn a player scores a point for each of the remaining flags they control and the first to 3 points wins. The hedges provide concealment. The Centurion was bonded to Haley (gets +2" of movement and can be allocated an additional focus) and the Lancer was Nightmare's Prey.

Cygnar turn 1: Haley allocated 1 focus to both jacks. The Centurion ran forward, followed by the Storm Strider, Sword Knights and Lancer. The Journeyman advanced and cast Arcane Shield (+3 ARM) on the Centurion. Haley advanced and cast Telekinesis (place target model up to 2") to place the Centurion 2" forward and sat on 4 focus. Everything else ran.

 

Cryx turn 1: Deneghra allocated 1 focus to the Defiler behind the Bane Knights and 1 to Nightmare. The Bane Knights ran up spread out and the Bile Thralls followed, interweaving themselves between the Banes a bit. The Skarlock and Deneghra (camping 5 focus) ran behind the hedge, the Ragman ran onto the hill and Gorman ran up the flank, hill adjacent. Nightmare and a Defiler advanced to the base of the hill and the other Defiler ran near the buildings. At the end of the round the flag between the forests disappeared.

A Cygnar perspective.

A Cryx perspective.

Cygnar turn 2: Jr. upkept Arcane Shield and Haley kept all her focus. First the Centurion advanced 6" and used its Polarity Field special action (can't be charged in it's front arc), then the Sword Knights ran up. Strangeways advanced behind the hedge and used Power Booster to give the Lancer 1 focus. The Storm Smith ran to get out of the way and the Lancer ran behind the Sword Knights. Haley cast Temporal Acceleration (target model gets +2" of movement and can make an additional attack) on the Storm Strider, advanced and then placed herself forward another couple inches so that her feat (Haley's controller gets to choose the order in which enemy models activate and they must sacrifice their movement or action) would affect as much of the enemy army as possible. It got everyone, but Gorman. She fired an unboosted hand cannon shot at a Bane Knight, but missed. The Storm Strider advanced and fired at 3 different Bane Knights, hitting hitting and killing all three. It also killed 1 Bane Knight and 2 Bile Thralls with the Lightning Generator damage, as well as doing 4 damage to the Skarlock. Aiyana and Holt advanced, Aiyanna used Ayisla's Veil (giving her and Holt Stealth) and Holt tried to shoot the Ragman, but was short. Lastly, the Journeyman ran behind the hedge.

Cryx turn 2: Deneghra kept all her focus and became incorporeal (she can opt to do so in her control phase, just not two turns in a row). As Beau was dictating Jamar's order of activation via Haley's feat, he chose Deneghra to go first. She camped all her focus, advanced and used her feat (enemy models can't move except to change facing and suffer -3 DEF), catching all of Beau's army. The Bile Thralls advanced, followed by the Bane Knights, who Jamar forgot Vengeance move this turn. Everything else simply advanced, except for Gorman who moved up and threw a Black Oil bomb at the Storm Strider, blinding it (for one round it can't make ranged or magic attacks, -4 DEF & MAT, can't run or charge and must forfeit movement or action).

Cygnar turn 3: Haley allocated 4 to the Centurion and Jr. didn't upkeep Arcane Shield on it. As all of Beau's army was unable to advance and his main ranged threat couldn't make ranged attacks, there wasn't going to be a flurry of activity from his force, though he had an idea of how he might be able to do Deneghra in. First off Jr. cast Arcane Shield on Haley, who activated next. Part of Beau's plan was then to use Telekinesis to move the Storm Strider out of the way so Aiyana could see/target the Centurion with Lurynsar's Touch (makes target model/units attacks magical) and who was in range to do so. The other part of the plan was to Telekinesis the Centurion the 2" toward the incorporeal Deneghra and thus have her within magical stabbing range. The snafu occurred however with his order of activation, as Beau of course had to activate Haley first to Telekinesis said models, but moving the Centurion up would bring it out of Aiyana's spells reach. Unfortunately Beau had already TK'd the Storm Strider when he realized his error, so to attempt to salvage his turn he TK'd Haley 2" back. The Storm Smith attempted to Call Lightning on the Defiler by the buildings, but was short. Aiyana used Ayisla's Veil again and Holt aimed and shot the Defiler by the hill, hitting twice for a total of 8 damage and no crippled systems. Everything else stayed put and hoped Deneghra slipped on a banana peel.

Cryx turn 3: Deneghra allocated 3 to Nightmare, keeping the rest. In a slightly odd maneuver the Bane Knights ran out of the way, over near the buildings. The Bile Thralls advanced next and the lead one Purged (all models in its front arc and within 6" take a POW 12 corrosion damage roll and suffer corrosion), killing all but 1 Sword Knight and corroding the Lancer and Centurion. The Defiler by the buildings advanced and sprayed the Storm Smith, but missed and the Ragman advanced to the center flag and used Death Field, giving friendly models within 3" Dark Shroud (-2 ARM to enemies in melee range). The Skarlock advanced and cast Marked For Death (essentially -2 DEF) on the Storm Strider and Deneghra then charged it, doing 5 damage and was pushed a tiny bit, bumping into the Centurion. One of her weapons abilities is called Dark Banishment (when she damages an enemy model with it she can place it a distance away equal to D6" plus 1" per focus currently on her) so after damaging the Storm Strider she placed it 5" away (rolled a 1 +4). She then attempted to cast a boosted Marked For Death on Haley, but missed. Gorman went next, advanced and threw a Black Oil bomb at Haley, but was just short and it deviated harmlessly. Lastly, the Nightmare charged Haley with it's first Wicked Claw, boosted it (needing a 10 due to Set Defense) and hit for 11 damage, leaving her with 4 health. Jamar boosted the second claw swing and hit again, doing 5 damage and finishing off Haley.

Aftermath: There's another batrep in the books and another one that was not won by scenario. Things started off OK for Beau, with the Storm Strider rolling well and Jamar forgetting his Vengeance move. The first turning point was when Gorman Black Oiled the battle engine, showing yet again why he is probably the best 2 point solo in the game. An easy hindsight fix would have been to include the Squire, as if her CTRL area was a bit more than 1" longer he would have been feated upon. The order of activation slip up obviously didn't help, but brain farts of this nature do happen every now and again and are usually aren't noticed until it's too late to rectify them. Had he instead kept 6 on Haley and gave 2 to the Centurion he could have TK'd all three models required for the maneuver, though it's pretty unlikely that the Centurion with just 2 could have taken out a fully camping Deneghra. In the end Nightmare still needed to roll decently to kill Haley out right, with about a 60% chance to hit with the charge attack and roughly a 55% chance to damage her enough, with dice -1 on rolls. Afterwards, Beau admitted he probably should have held Haley's feat to use as a counter to Deneghra's, to prevent just this sort of situation. He also regretted not sticking with his original list (which included the Black 13th among other things), but he'd put the Sword Knights as he was unsure what scenario was to be played and wanted more of a board presence. Jamar probably could've done something more useful with his Banes the last turn of the game, but of course it worked out for him regardless. In the next report we finally have some blighted representation, as Sameer's Legion take on Jamar's Skorne.