Battle Report: The Witch Coven vs. Reznik

Thursday night was my first opportunity to act as a roving reporter. I came barrelling through Marc's door with camera and notepad in hand. I had it on good intel that there was to be a game of Warmachine (as there is every Thursday night). Here was the match-up:

Cryx - 498pts (played by Marc)
Witch Coven of Garlghast, Slayer, Deathripper x 3, Nightwretch x 1, Defiler x 1, Bloat Thrall x 1, Pistol Wraith x 1, Mechanithralls x 6.

Menoth - 496pts (played by Ken)
Reznik, Devout x 1, Revenger x 2, Repenter x 1, Choir x 6, Wrack x 1, Vilmon x 1, Holy Zealots x 6 + Monolith Bearer

And the forces deployed...

Cryx Turn One:

The left flank advanced.

The Coven started casting; Stealth on the mechanithralls and Infernal Machine on the Nightwretch.

The witches stayed in base contact to keep protected by Stealth. The Cryx turn came to an end without much action.

Menoth Turn One:

The zealots advanced.

Reznik ran to get closer to the action.

The devout ran in to protect his controller.

The warjacks advanced to form a solid battle line.

The choir put a Shielding Ward on the warjacks. Unfortunately, the Devout was out of range. (uh-oh...) The turn ended on this sour note.

Cryx Turn Two:

The Witch Coven droped all upkeep spells and got down to business. The turn started with the pistol wraith moving into position on the flank of the army.

The bloat thrall shot at the wrack, hoping for a lucky scatter. The scatter was rather unlucky with no damage caused.

The nightwretch moved up and a witch cast Stygian Abyss on the Devout. The attack caused a paltry 4 damage, but the critical caused Blindness.

Thanks to the witchhound special rule, Reznik advanced one of his Revengers.

The witch continued and cast Imprison on the Revenger. Things were getting challenging for Reznik.

The remainder of the Cryxian force advanced into position.

Menoth Turn Two:

The turn started with the Devout taking a corrosion hit. He was also under the effect of Blindness - no running, charging, slamming, and -4 to MAT/DEF. Furthermore, the Devout had to forfeit either movement or action.

Here you can see the imprison effect on the Revenger. It could only be damaged by magic and was very vexing for Ken.

...and a picturesque shot of the forest. Killing time while Ken checked the online FAQ.

The choir moved up and put another Shielding Ward on the jacks, this time getting all of them.

The zealots moved up again and benefited from spell protection.

The imprisoned Revenger took a swing at the Nightwretch but missed.

Reznik snagged a focus from the Wrack without it exploding and then attempted to get down to business. He cast Witchhammer and boosted the attack roll. However, a roll of 3, 1, 1, missed. He moved on and cast Brand on the Slayer - missed! Not a good turn at all!

Vilmon advanced and went into Impervious Wall. The warjacks advanced. In short, an entire turn messed up by Imprison and poor luck.

Cryx Turn Three:

The Egregore and a witch moved onto the hill. The witch feated (Nightfall) and cast Ghostwalk on the Nightwretch.

Ghostwalk allowed the Nightwretch to escape from melee with the Revenger and it headed towards the Menothian back line. It shot at the choir, missed, but the scatter landed on the warpriest and a choir member and killed both.

The mechanithralls charged the Revenger and did remarkably little damage.

The pistol wraith unloaded his weapons and took out the wrack and another member of the choir, and gained two soul tokens in the process

The choir was down to half strength and was minus a Warpriest.

The Slayer charged the Devout, but the Devout missed with its defensive strike, and the Slayer inflicted 11 points of damage, which in turn took out the Movement system. A second damaging hit made the jack inert.




Menoth Turn Three:

Although I don't have a picture, Reznik moveD into base contact with the Slayer, and through a crappy run of bad rolling, did nothing. However, Vilmon charged the Nightwretch and annihilated it.

The remaining choir members ran to engage the mechanithralls. The revenger killed a lone mechanithrall.

The second revenger hit the Slayer and did a little damage. The Repenter came to assist and did very little as well.

Meanwhile, on the left flank, the zealots advanced, Greater Destinied(?), and threw bombs at the Egregore. The bombs scattered with no effect. Another ineffective turn for Reznik and his followers.

Cryx Turn Four:

This turn went fairly quickly. A witch cast Infernal Machine on the Slayer. The Slayer needed a six on two dice (Marc decided not to boost) and got it! A boosted combo strike did 10 damage points. One more solid hit, and Reznik fell to the ground in defeat.

To Cryx went the victory! However, even in the most desperate of times sportsmanship wins out.

Show and Tell:

Outside of the game, there was a short "Show and Tell" session involving some freshly completed models from both players.

First of all, Marc had completed a rather large project - A super-heavy Deathjack. Awesome paintjob!

Not to be outdone, Ken did a smashing job on his Menoth Wracks. In my opinion, Ken's paintjobs put the Privateer paintjobs of the same models to shame.

I hope you enjoyed my account of a gripping and entertaining game. There will be more in the future, so stay tuned.

Thanks for reading,
JET