When I got to GNS, there were two new faces I didn't recognize battling out league games in Skorne vs. Cryx. The Skorne player, John Patrick, was running Morghoul with a Bronzeback and Gladiator titans. The Cryx player, Chandler, was running the standard Cryx battlebox with Deneghra, two Deathrippers, a Defiler, and a Slayer. Both John and Chandler were very new to Mk2, so I spent a good portion of the night answering random rules questions for them both, during our games together as well as during their other games. However, they both acquitted themselves well and are well on their way to becoming solid veteran players.
I've provided a summary of the games after the break.
I played Chandler first, after he won his game versus John Patrick. Chandler had only played one game prior to the night in Mk1, so he was learning everything as he went along. The first two turns we both ran and/or charged our models up the field. Chandler quickly landed Crippling Grasp on my Archidon on turn 2, and I was forced to bring the Archidon back to keep it out of charge range, but leaving it available for melee for turn 3. Chandler landed Parasite on the Sentry the following turn, and kept both of my heavies under Crippling Grasp and Parasite like a pro. By turn 3 all of my models were ticking off damage to corrosion from Defiler spray and Denny's Venom spell, but otherwise had only suffered minor damage.
On turn 4, the real melee began as Chandler sent in all his jacks against the Sentry, hoping to finish it off. However, Xerxis had Defender's Ward up on my Titan Sentry from turn 1, and at DEF 13/ARM 23, even Parasite wasn't enough to help the Slayer and all three bonejacks take him down. After surviving the onslaught, I moved the Archidon into the fray, and with Fury boosting its Bite to P+S 18, it slew one of the bonejacks. Xerxis flanked the Archidon and combi-Smited another bonejack, taking out its movement, cortex and head in one smash. He switched Fury to the Sentry, and now had the two heavies between him, the Slayer and Denny. The Sentry proceeded to swing and smash both arms on the Slayer, and then throw up Locker to keep the jacks engaged and away from Xerxis.
Lacking any means to repair the Slayer, and hoping to take the Sentry down, Chandler sent Denny in against the Sentry and dumped his focus into attacks, denting it, but only succeeding in taking out the Mind spiral. The follow turn, Xerxis popped his feat, destroyed the bonejack he had smited the last turn and applied some damage to the Slayer. The Archidon finished the Slayer off, and the Sentry was free to smash Denny. To avoid having to boost all my attack rolls, I had the Sentry headbutt, which went off without issue knocking down Denny. After that it took one purchased, auto-hitting halberd attack to end the game.
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The second game against John Patrick involved a lot more finesse. As we each had 5-fury Warlocks and two heavies, we had rather straight forward opening advances. I pushed the Archidon far forward, barely keeping it in Xerxis control area but seeking the safety and maneuvering room afforded by a forest on John's side of the field. This movement would force the Bronzeback to advance behind the Gladiator the following turn, limiting the directions for its Countercharge, and lulling John into a false sense of security as his Warlock would remain safely behind the two beasts. I also placed Defender's Ward on the Archidon first this game to boost its DEF to 16, which meant John would need to boost to hit consistently.
John and I danced through round 2, with me flying my Archidon through the forest to his far right flank, just behind his Gladiator. Morghoul's Admonition spell allowed the Gladiator to advance to just outside of melee range, and on his turn, John began the task of trying to smash the flying fiend. With a MAT of 6 though, the Gladiator needed 10's to hit the Archidon, and only succeeded in landing two gauntlets for damage at dice minus 3, which wasn't enough to cripple the beast. The Bronzeback was too far out of position to reach the Archidon and finish the job, so he ran to cover Morgoul's advance to the right flank, and sat ready to countercharge my movements with Admonition assisting.
Round 3, I opened with moving Xerxis advancing into the edge of the forest, and healing the Archidon a couple of points to restore its mind, and throwing Defender's Ward on the Sentry. The Archidon then moved into melee with the Bronzeback and the Gladiator. The intent was to force the Bronzeback to use its admonition to either open a charge lane to Morghoul, or advance backwards so the Sentry and Archidon could tag team the Gladiator. Instead, John wisely used Admonition to back up and then trigger countercharge to attack the Archidon. Unfortunately the Bronzeback missed its attack, and I was able to bring it down to about half life with the Archidon's attacks. Then the Sentry slammed the Bronzeback, landing it directly on top of Morghoul, who transferred the damage to the Gladiator, knocking out its body stat. The Bronzeback was missing its mind now, which meant Morghoul was starting to look fury starved if he wanted to heal both beasts and cast his spells the following turn.
John decided to make a go of killing the Archidon with the Gladiator, managing to land two hits and kill the beast. This left the Bronzeback with the job of taking down the Sentry, but without Abuse, as Morghoul had spent all his fury on healing the beasts. The Bronzeback also had to spend fury to shake its knockdown, and spend another point just to reliably reach the Sentry. Needless to say, the Bronzeback wasn't able to finish my armored elephant.
Round 4, and I realize that Xerxis is within walking distance of the Gladiator through the forest, if he gives himself Pathfinder. He proceeds to pop his feat and smashed the Gladiator easily, cast Fury on the Sentry, and was left with two fury to spare. I advance my Sentry around the side of the Bronzeback and pop Locker, which means Morghoul will now be unable to reach Xerxis without going through the aura and being stopped. The Sentry is a beast with Fury and Xerxis feat on it, and the already wounded Bronzeback goes down quickly, leaving Morghoul by himself. John's run out of options now. He pops Morghoul's feat, charges the Sentry, and proceeds to deal a total of 10 damage to it spread fairly evenly across the Sentry's branches.
Round 5. The Sentry is functionally useless as it's only MAT 5 and swinging against a DEF 17, without the ability to boost due to Morghoul's feat. I decide I'm going to have to finish this with Xerxis, but even he will need a bit of luck to hit Morghoul. Instead, I go for the softer target, and combo-smite my Titan Sentry from behind. After a bit of laughing about Skorne's cruelty to its own troops, I roll up the slam for 3", which perfectly displaces Morghoul forward into reach range of Xerxis, while knocking him down. With his remaining 5 fury, Xerxis destroyed the chief of the blood elf torture society and gave me another tic in the win column.
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