The Iron King!

Hello and welcome,

To start off todays blog, I thought I would show you all of what I have got done on the painting front:

Bane Knights





Warwitch Siren

I converted this model form the eAlexia and a Warwitch Siren to give a variety to my army.

Iron Haven's 35pt Iron king tornument

In my last post I said that I would be attending the Iron King at Iron Haven Games in Exeter and blogging about how I got on. Unfortunately, the camera I took to the event died on me so was unable to take pictures of my games. So this wirte up will be a bit wordy so I am sorry about that.

My List:

The Witch Coven of Garlghast (*5pts)
* Deathripper (4pts)
* Deathripper (4pts)
* Stalker (4pts)
* Deathjack (12pts)
Bane Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts)
Warwitch Siren (2pts)
Warwitch Siren (2pts)

My first game was against Pat Vance, a very experienced Legion player who is well recognised on the warmachine/hordes scene.

I won the roll and set up first, deploying centrally with the bane kinghts protecting the Coven. The Warwitch Siren and the two Deathrippers were on either flank, the Stalker went on the left flank as well with Deathjack in the center of the field.

I can't rember the list that Pat took but his warlock was pThagrosh. He deployed centrally with two deathstalkers on my right flank.

My first turn was spent advancing up the table towards Pat's battle line. I used Infernal machine on the Stalker through the arc node and then cycled Infernal machine onto Deathjack who then also ran up the board. One main mistake I made this turn was not putting stealth on to the Bane Knights- I would pay for this mistake. The next few turns involved Pat moving up and shooting the Bane Knights with the Deathstalkers. Deathjack killed Pat's Carnivean but took a fair amount of damge from spiny growth, but Deathjack was taken down in Pat's next turn. The game wrapped up with Pat tabling me, so not such a good start to the day!

My second game was against a local gamer called Mike. He was running his Cygnar. I deployed similarly to my first game. I won the roll and advanced up the field and Deathjack had advanced deployed so got up the table quickly. Mike advanced slowly up the table protecting Sloan behind a wall of Precursor Knights. Unfortunately for Mike, Sloan was in range of a very cheeky trample from an Infernal Machine-buffed Deathjack who, loaded on five focus, killed Sloan in two attacks on turn 2. Fastest caster kill of the day.

In my third game I played Matt Beer, another local player with his Retribution force run by Rahn. The scenario was Incoming from Steamroller 2012. My deployment was the same as my first two games. In this scenario the caster has to control an objective and the army has to contest an opposing rectangle. Matt had moved up the board quickly  engaging me with the Mage Hunter Assassins, while my stalker was pushing Matts left flank but faillng to get into combat with Rahn. I mucked up my activation on a trampling Deathjack, forgetting to buy attacks against the models I had moved into melee range with. The game ended with Matt killing my Coven with a Magehunter. What I should have done was advanced my Caster onto the objective and camped my army and aimed for the win on control points. Also, buying attacks after Deathjack trampled would have been helpful!

The last game of the day was against Mike again in a Mangled Metal game.

My mangled metal list was:

The Witch Coven of Garlghast (*5pts)
* Deathripper (4pts)
* Stalker (4pts)
* Stalker (4pts)
* Deathjack (12pts)
* Slayer (6pts)

I had my Stalkers threaterning the flanks of Mikes army with Deathjack and the Slayer moving up the center of the board. Mike advanced up putting some damge on to Deathjack from some ranged attacks. The next few turns involved me moving into combat with Mike's jacks, killing two of them and knocking one down from a headbutt. The game ended with my Stalker killling Sloan....again!

All in all a very good day. I finished in 13th out of 18, doing far better than I did last year (picked up worst general with my Skorne)! I made a few mistakes in my games and need to work on getting attrition points. I also need to aim to get more control points in my games as I think if I had done this, I would have come higher on the leaderboard.

On a side note I got some feedback on my narrative battle reports saying I need some context of why the Coven are on the mainland. I like to think the Coven are part of an incursion, in search of magical items to further their dark knowledge. In the battle against Retirbution, the Coven are looking for some arcane items to add to the pile of stolen treasure that the Cryx forces are plundering from tombs of ancient warcasters and warlocks of the Iron Kingdoms.

Thanks for reading.



A painting update

Hi all,

Just a quick update toady on the painting front.
As some of you may know Iron Haven games at Exeter are running a 35 point Steamroller with the last match been a 25 point mangled metal list with the same caster as the 35 pint list. More information can be found here:

http://www.ironhavengames.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Ironhaven_Presents-the-Iron-King-2012.pdf

Also you can get in contact with Fred or Craig via this email address:

admin@ironhavengames.co.uk

The list submission date has past but I know there are still tickets for sale and Im sure the guys up there can sort something out if you want to play and you around the South west on the 28th of this month.

You dont need a fully painted force but there will be a raffle for all the fully painted armies to enter. I myself will be blogging about my day at Iron Haven so watch this space for that post.

With the painting raffle in mind and to get my new year off to a start with my painting I have been busy slapping paint on to models and here are my latest finished models, I still need to start a unit of Bane Knights and finished some bits on my warwitch sirens

Witch Coven of Garlghast & the Egrogore:

Cankerworm:

Finally two Stalkers:

Thank you for looking.

Cryx vs Retibution of Scyrah 35pts

Hello and welcome.

This will be a battle report against my Cryx force and my good friend and press ganger Matt Beer. He took his Retribution in this Killbox game. As there were a couple of games going on at Matt's house, we couldnt play on a full 4x4 table so the killbox was reduced accordingly.

My list is unchanged from the last report as I'm trying to get practice in for a few tournaments that are coming up in the next few months. I found last year that I struggled with learning different lists for different events so this year I'm working on a "go to" list that I know inside out which will form the main part of my lists. Hopefully this will work at multiple list events, hence the lack of characters due to the rumours around Steamroller 2012.

My list.

 The Witch Coven of Garlghast (*5pts)
* Deathripper (4pts)
* Stalker (4pts)
* Reaper (7pts)
* Slayer (6pts)
Bloodgorgers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Soulhunters (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
Darragh Wrathe (4pts)
Necrotech & 1 Scrap Thrall (1pts)

Matts list.

Arcanist Ossyan (*6pts)
* Discordia (10pts)
Dawnguard Invictors (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
* Dawnguard Invictor Officer & Standard (2pts)
* Soulless Escort (1pts)
Mage Hunter Strikeforce (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Mage Hunter Commander (2pts)
Dawnguard Destor Thane (4pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)

The battle of the lost wood.

The dawn was just breaking over the far hills, as light pierced the canopy of the Forest surrounding the smoking Cygnar installation. The three sisters of Garlghast walked slowly through the butchers yard that was a few hours ago. The Cygnar was the company of Trenchers, but had been slaughtered to the last man by the force led by the three enchanting witches in a short and bloody ambush.

Heallena stopped next to the gory remains of a Cygnar officer. She squatted next to the body as she looked over the the smoking wood, "Its not here", she hissed at her other two sisters. Morgaen broke the silence, "The thief lied to us, you should have kept him alive dear sister". Heallena stood up and glared at her sister; her fist clenched as she held back her anger, "He could not have lied, no human could have lied through that much pain and suffering". A sly grin flicked across her innocent face as she recalled the fear and screams of the young thief as she stripped his flesh from his body. "This isn't helping", Selene stepped between her sisters, "We need to work out what we should do next. Lord Terminus is already displeased with us for losing over half of our force to the blighted Legion, he has given this mission to prove we are still of use to him". "Well Lord Venethrax seemed pleased we managed to kill their prophet", Heallena interrupted, "If we did indeed kill him" Selene snapped. "We must recover this artifact; we cant rely on the favor of Venethrax to protect us from the anger of our Lord Terminus if we fail". Selene put extra emphasis on the words our lord reminding, her sisters that they were all sworn to his service.


She knew that any fighting between the sisters would only aid their enemies, particularly those within their own ranks. This though made her search the tree line for the figure of Darragh Wrathe, who always seems ready to use others weakness for his own advantage. Through the smoke, she caught a glimpse of something moving near the furthest Cygnar power sation. "Have either of you sent troops over that way", Selene pointed to where she saw the shape. Heallena and Morgaen looked at each other and back to Selene, "No", was the telepathic response. No sooner had Selene had this answer when she felt the familiar tingle that told of a warcaster. She looked at her sister who could also feel the warning, "Over there behind the Cygnar spire", shouted Heallena as she pointed. The words had just past her lips as the sister stared calling up their Jacks who where still searching the ruined Cygnar camp. The Slayer and the Reaper took up central postions as the small Deathripper came from a small building to stand on the right flank near the blood stained Stalker that had just raced forward. The sudden burst of activty alerted the Bloodgorgers that their mistresses were in danger. They ran from the pile of burning Cygnar corpses, with weapons at the ready to stand in front of the three witches, who had stepped back away from the frontline to be with their beloved Egregore. They stood in a perfect triangle with the strange orb in the centre. "Where is Darragh?" Morgaen asked her other sisters who could offer no response, "Do you think he has betrayed us?" Morgaen pressed. "There he is", pointed Heallena to the left flank where the Soulhunters were also with Darragh Wrathe. The last of the Cryx force to take up a postion on the battle line was the Necrotech and its Scrap Thrall; the Necrotech seemed more interested in harvesting Cygnar technology rather than getting ready to fight.

The foe was still unseen through the smoke and the early morning light was trickling through the trees. Then almost on cue, a gust of wind blew the smoke aside and revealed the battleline of the elves in the armour of the Retribution of Scyrah. The sisters had not faced this foe before but knew they had some highborne ideas about ridding the world of man from magic and there were whispers that a young Khador caster had something that belongs to them. All of this was, at this time, besides the point. Why were they here in this place of all places thought Selene. The shortening shadows in front of the Retribution force seemed to be moving, "They have already infiltrated into the camp. I bet they must be that strike force that were in those Cygnar reports you found". Morgaen nodded towards at Selene.

Heallena spoke quietly, "Maybe that elf has what we seek?". "It might have, they seem very good at sneaking; they could have taken it while these Cygnar troops died". Selene replied as she nudged one of the bodies of the Cygnar troop with her toe. "Well lets find out", grinned Morgaen, calling on her magical power to empower the Slayer and the Reaper to run forward through the smoking wood towards the Mage Hunter Strike force. As the heavy jack crashed through the wood, birds shouted theer difference as they were shaken from their perches by the speeding jacks. The brute of a Bloodgorger looked at the sight of the charging jacks and heaved his axe into the air and started to run forward screaming a blood curdling battlecry as they followed the jacks into the now brightly lit wood.
Thinking quickly, Heallena cast Occultation onto their troll bodyguard to shield them from anything but the closest of shots. Selene watched the runes of power twisting around Heallena's hands. She looked away from her sister, towards the Stalker and the Deathripper out on the far right flank. She closed her eyes and sent instructions to the two bonejacks; who on receiving instructions, raced forwards towards a raised part of the Cygnar Camp were the last of the Cygnar troops made a desperate last stand a few hours ago. Once Selene had sent the bonejacks off on their tasks, she turned towards Darragh Wrathe who had trotted his mount over to the three sisters. Selene looked up into the face of Darragh, in her most charming way, but still authoritatively instructed him to push up the left flank and try to hook to the right to encircle the now advancing elves. He nodded his head, understanding, as he spurred his mount forward, past his Soulhunters who galloped to the left as they were quickly lost from sight in the thick undergrowth.



The elves were moving quickly to take up their firing postions on the rapidly closing Cryx. Morgaen reached out with her mind to look through the eyes of the Slayer. She watched as the Invictors advanced forward and was surprised to see them bring their weapons to their shoulders, targeting the Reaper. Runes of power could be seen glowing around them. She scanned the ranks until she saw the enemy caster; he had his arms in the air calling forth all of his power that seemed to be empowering the shots of the troops surrounding him.
A glint of greeny light caught Morgaen's attention. She used the mechanical eyes of the Slayer to zoom toward the flickering light on the chest of the enemy warcaster. "I have found it!" Morgaen smiled at her other two sisters as she pulled away from the Slayer's cortex. As she spoke, an explosion shocked the Forest. The sister's stared shocked at the toppling Reaper as a massive hole was blown in the side of it's furnace."What in the abyss was that?!" shouted Selene. The jack was on the Forest's floor; fire and smoke flickering upwards from its ruined shell. Morgaen was about to connect to the Slayer when she saw the advancing elves stop and bring their crossbows to bear on the Slayer. She was not concerned about the jack as it had very heavy armour; she watched as the elves fired crossbow bolts which filled the air; some harmlessly hitting trees. One struck a Soulhunter who ignored the injury, but a number hit the Slayer and for a split second nothing happend, then the jack was torn apart by a magical explosion that ripped the head off the Slayer and sent it crashing into a tree where it slammed down and was cracked apart by a smaller explosion from its internal system. The shock on Morgaen face was reflected in her sisters faces; in a matter of a minute, their two heavy jacks were smoking piles of scrap metal. A thrill warning sounded in the minds of the sisters from the Stalker off on the right flank as it focussed their attention back to the battle; there would be time later to wonder what magical power could so enhance the power of mere bows and arrows.
Closing her eyes Heallena connected with the Stalker to see the charging Mage Hunter Assassin flick her whip towards the bonejack. Heallena forced the jack to the right just in time to aviod the powerful blow.

Heallena launched the Stalker back at the Mage Hunter. Its eviscerator slicing the elfs head clean off as blood spurted high into the morning air. The elf's body shook for a second before crumpling to the floor. Over on the left flank, a shrill scream pierced the sounds of battle. It came from the second Mage Hunter Assassin who was sinking to her knees as her soul was pulled fom her body by one of the undead Soulhunters. Selene relished the sound and then turned her attention to the centre of the battle to watch the brute of a troll smash the skull of the first elf it came to. The rest of the unit set on the elves, hacking two more down in wild blows of their axes. The battle was moving forward so the three sisters started advancing up to be closer to the action. They stopped next to one of the Cygnar Spires. "That caster over there has the pendent we are looking for dear sisters", said Morgaen to her sisters. "Well done, now we have a reason to gut that elf", a wicked grin spread across Selene's face as she spoke. They all watched as the rest of their army moved forward to be closer to the elves. The battle was far from decided but for now the sisters felt confident in the morning sun.

Darragh Wrathe was pleased with his Soulhunters; they had already killed one elf and were moving quickly to outflank the whole of the elven force. He steadied his horse and peeped through the smoke filled, death-ridden wood. He watched as a elven knight charged forward from the line, its horse's hooves sending mud flying as the rider steadied its lance, aiming directly at Darragh.
On seeing the threat, Darragh called his Soulhunters forward to meet this lone knight. As they closed on each other, magical fire shot out from the tip of the elf's lance, blasting one Soulhunter into oblivion. A second shot hit a tree just over Darragh's right shoulder, another three inches to the left and it would have been Darragh's head that was blown apart.
Heallena watched as the battle unfolded in front of her. She saw the Soulhunter eviscerated by the shots of Destor Thane. She noted a tinge of annoyance when Darragh's head was not blown from his shoulders. "Don't worry about Darragh dear sister" Morgaen thoughts entered into Heallenas consciousness, "We will deal with that man when the need arises". Heallena was about to reply to her sister when a fusillade of shots rang out from in front of the witches. Instinctively they called on their arcane power to bolster their armour; they quickly saw however that they did not need to. The Necrotech who was fighting with some of the cloaked elves had two massive holes blown in his chest; green tainted blood pumped from the wounds as it toppled backwards onto the forest floor. On seeing its creator fall, the Scrap Thrall rushed forwards in an attempt to avenge his master. As it came forwards, it was hit by a rifle round. The thrall staggered and then tore itself apart in an explosion as the self distruct system kicked in, leaving a smoking hole in the ground as shrapnal spun outward hitting an elf in the chest and lower leg. The mortally wounded elf dropped to the floor where he gurgled bloody bubbles and died. From behind the dead elf, a ball of flame licked out over the forest floor from the heavy elven jack that stuck to anything it hit. A Soulhunter galloped away from the battle bathed in flame as the undead felsh burned with a green and black smoke. The Soulhunter got no more than twenty paces before it collapsed to the ground in a pile of still burning flesh and metal.
The Bloodgorgers were fighting  in the center of the field  but the long knives of the elves were taking their toll on the Bloodgorgers. One lay on its back with it's throat sliced open, blood pooling around its body. To the right of the body, an elf leapt off one the Bloodgorgers slashing its knife across the hamstring of the Bloodgorger. It bellowed in pain and anger as it dropped to one knee. The brute was quickly silenced by a flick of the elf's wrist as she brought the blade back and over the throat of the downed Bloodgorger; bright red blood sprayed in the air and splatted over the face of the elf. The great brute of the leader was fending off blows from two assailants; one darted to his right while the other went to his left. He manged to block one attack but the second elf hacked  downwards with two hands, the Bloodgorger tried to dodge the blow but he was too slow and the short steel knife slid into his thigh; roaring in range he fell to the forest floor with the blade lodged in his leg.
Over on the right flank the Stalker was hit by bombardment of shots from a small group of Invictors  buckling its leg and destroying its cortex. Stubbornly the bonejack remained standing  and started moving slowly towards the new threat, dragging one of its back legs behind it, leaving a trail of oil across the forest undergrowth.

The damaged Stalker closed towards the Invictors who moments before had shot the bonejack. It pulled itself on to the top of the fallen tree that the elf warriors were covering behind. The jack  raised its right arm and crashed down onto an elf that was too slow to see the danger, the skull shattered from the blow as the Stalker dropped down the other side of the fallen log only to be greeted by two well aimed shots from the remaining Invictors. The shots impacted dead centre on the light jack, flinging it backwards back over the log in a smoking pile of scrap metal.
The battle hung on a knife edge; it could go either way and the sisters could sense it as they pressed forward to where the wreck of the Reaper lay smoking. Selene reached out with her mind to connect with the small Deathripper calling over to the witches side. It came running over the Cygnar camp  and stopped next to Heallena and awaited further intructions. In front of the witches, the massive brute of a Bloodgorger heaved himself upwards and pulled the elven blade out from his thigh and tossed it towards the elf that had inflicted the wound, catching the elf in the shoulder spinning him round as he fell. "FORWARDS" roared the Bloodgorgers leader as he limped towards the second rank of elves as the remainder of his unit surged forward. To the left of the advancing leader a Bloodgorger lunged at an elf running it through with his wickedly curved knife. As that elf died on his blade, the Bloodgorger smacked his club in his right hand over the skull of a second elf who stood in his way; the club impacted with a sickening wet crunch. The limping Bloodgorger leader was overtaken by the quicker members of his unit. He watched with some pride as they crashed into the rear rank of elves. He saw one slash of a knife at one of the small camouflaged elves who lent away from the cut as it whistled harmlessly past the elf's neck.
On seeing the carnage of the Bloodgorgers, Darragh orderd his remaining Soulhunters into the attack. They ghosted forward, the bodies going incorporeal thanks to Darragh minor magical ablity. The most forward of the Soulhunters drifted through the shadow realm and reappeared right next to the enemy caster. It hacked downward with its Scythe, cutting a deep wound over the caster's chest. The undead horseman was about to finish the job with its curved hook when it was smashed sideways by an elven jack that had come to the aid of it's warcaster. The rest of the Soulhunters had closed with the elf knight that had shot one of thier unit moments earlier. Sharpe Scythes hacked at the elves and as he died his soul was pulled from his still warm and bloody body by the Soulhunter that had finished the knight off.
The three sisters looked on as the Bloodgorgers took the fight to the enemy. Selene knew, as the other two did, that the next few minutes will be the difference between victory or death. She called on the power of the night and her own magical ablity to cover the bright forest in an all consuming darkness, protecting the advancing troops of cryx from the elven fire that was taking a steady toll on the Cryx forces. Heallena watched with pride at her sister's magical feat, when she was distracted by the sight of rapidly advancing Invictors that were marching through the trees towards the sisters. On seeing the threat, Heallena called on her own power as the mist formed around her feet, she blew gently toward the advancing Invictors and the mist obeyed handing in front of the elves like a veil.

  
Lord Arcanist Ossyan was wounded. He  clutched his left hand to his chest in an atempt to stem the blood that was oozing from a gash in his blue armour. He had to stop the forces of Cryx from taking the valuable artifact that the stupid Cygnar forces had dug up at this isolated outpost. Ossyan rasied his sword and chopped at the undead beast that had given him this new wound. The Soulhunter  dodged the attack only to be hammered in the head by the giant of a jack that had moved up to support his caster. The blow took the Soulhunter's head clean off in a shower of undead gory felsh and bone. 
Heallena watched the wall of mist that she had created. Happy that no threat was coming from that direction, she turned to Selene "I think we have them on the back foot now". Selene turned to reply to her, only to see Heallena fall to the side cluching at her abdomin as bright red blood poured from between her clenched fingers. "Heallena!" screamed Selene as she rushed to the side of her fallen sister, followed by Morgaen who pushed hard on to the wound trying to stop the flow of blood. Selene looked for the threat that had nearly kill her sister; seeing three Invictors reloading their guns behind some trees they had advanced through the magical mist unseen by any of the sisters. "We need to get out of here", called Selene to her sister over the noise of battle. "Over.... there", pointed the injured Heallena. Selene and Morgaen helped Heallena to her feet and half-carried her over to the ruined camp wall. The Egregore joined the sisters as they attempted to heal their wounded sister. Turning back to the battle, Selene saw the enemy warcaster was exposed in a tiny knot of his men trying to fend off a Soulhunter. She watched as the last of the Bloodgorgers were cut down by the blades of elves.

It was the wounded Heallena that first saw the opportunity to finish this battle. She called on her power and reached her mind out in to the void, ignoring the pain in her stomach as she connected with the small Deathripper. She sent the arc node running forward to threaten the enemy caster. She closed her eyes trying to block out the pain and reopened them in time to see Darragh moving up to the elven caster. He forced his horse past two elves, ignoring them; they however did not let him pass without a fight. The first one slashed at Darragh, missing him by inches. The second was more accurate, driving it's knife into the flank of Darragh's mount, bringing the undead mount to the ground. Darragh kicked himelf free of the stirrups as the necrotech horse fell. He rolled on the ground as he got to his feet; he looked for the elf caster, seeing him in the small group of his men. Darragh called upon his minor arcane power to blast the elf with hellfire hitting the already wounded elf, but only damaging the caster's ornate amour.
On seeing Darragh's attack fail, the three sister's called their magical power together and moved up the field Selene supporting her injured sister as they went. The Egregore moved with them gliding over the battlefield like a ship on a still ocean. Morgaen stopped the small group and called on her power as she saw the wounded elf caster; her hands glowed with power as she fired  a bolt of pure energy at the elf, hitting him. Lord Arcanist Ossyan fell to his knees, his armour twisted and burnt as blood pooled from his wounds onto the muddy ground as his eyes rolled back in his head. His last thought was of failure, because he knew the forces of Cryx will find the arcane pendent that still hung around this neck.

My thoughts

What a battle! It really made both of us think and it was anyones guess who would win, though I think Matt had a quiet confidence as I have been unable to beat him at Warmachine since I started playing so this win was especially sweet.

Seeing both your heavy jacks being killed in turn two is very unsettling. Having played against Retribution a few times I have learnt the hard way that mage hunters assassins need to be removed quickly as their 4" melee range is just not very nice. I also have been on the end of the ignoring line of sight tricks that the Mage Hunter Strike Force can do, so engaging them was a top priority in this game. Using occultation helped a lot in this game as well as the granted stealth from being in base to base with the Egregore. This match was however characterised by appauling dice rolls from both myself and Matt.
I look forward to seeing what Matt has got to avenge the loss of Lord Arcanist Ossyan; one thing will be for sure it would not be a nice fluffy list.



Painting


I have finally manged to finish this unit of Bloodgorgers. They took me about four months to finish (I really dislike painting units!)

Wreck markers, hopefully wont have to use them too many times!

Thank you for looking.

Richard.

Cryx vs Legion of Everblight 35pt

Hello and welcome,

Today I will be recounting the story for the epic battle between the forces of Cryx and their heated adversary, the blighted elves of Everblight.

A full 'normal' battle report can be found on Claire's blog here:

http://journalofablightednyss.blogspot.com/

My list was(Cryx):

The Witch Coven of Garlghast
* Deathripper
* Stalker
* Reaper
* Slayer
Bloodgorgers (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Soulhunters (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Darragh Wrathe
Necrotech & 1 Scrap Thrall


Claire's list ( Legion of Everblight)

Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight
* Scythean
* Seraph
* Typhon
Gatormen Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Blighted Nyss Shepherd
1 Spell Martyr

The Scenario was Capture the flag.

The three sisters of Garlghast were on the advance once again on the unsuspecting realm of mortals. They arrived at the foot of a low valley with a small ruined chapel to their left and a tumbled down wall located in the center of the valley; off in the distance there was a forest that sloped away over the far hill.
The sisters were about to push on through the valley when they stopped, each one of them could sense a tingle warning of the presence of a warlock in front of them, though they could not see him yet. Each sister knew what she had to do even without speaking. Helleana forcused for a few seconds wiping her mind of the world around her as she linked into the cortexes of the jacks that had accompanied them on this foray into the mainland. She sent the quick and nimble Stalker off on the far left of their lines to link up with the deathripper who was protecting the flank of the Cryx advance. The Slayer, sensing the danger, had already advanced to the center of the line where he stood their with baleful eye, glearing at the far wood looking for any sign of life. The second sister, Morgaen, was focusing on bringing up the last of the jacks; an old and rusty, yet loyal, Reaper who lumbered into postion on the right of the Slayer.  The last sister, Selene, stood next to the strangely beautiful Egregore, stroking it slightly as she waited for Darragh Wrathe and the leader of thier Bloodgorger bodyguard. Once Darragh and the Bloodgorger had bowed before Selene, she told them what was expected of them; she directed in her enchanting voice for Darragh to take his soulhunters to the right of the valley to try and flank the unknown enemy. The Bloodgorgers were ordered to the centre of the line to protect the witches. The strange spider like form of the Necrotech scuttled up beside the Slayer, its undead eyes looked vacantly at the distance forest as its  explosive Scrap Thrall stood, unmoving next to the low wall.

The three sisters formed up around the Egregore, whispering to it and gently caressing it as they waited for the still unseen foe to show themselves. It was the ever vigilant Slayer who first spotted movement in the far forest as the unseen enermy revealed himself. The first beast to show themself was the horned Scythean  as he came crashing through the edge of the forest.  The foe that the witches would be facing was the blighted dragon spawn led by their Prophet, Thagrosh.  As the coven watched they finally spotted the warlock as he came from behind the Scythean to take up postion in the low valley; next to him there was a strange and twisted huminoid-form whose chest seemed to be glowing with an innerlight. In the center of the valley came human-like  beasts that looked like alligators- one of the Bloodgorgers growled in a low voice "Gatormen". For his insight he recived a savage blow across his head from the leader of the bodygards "Silence in the ranks" snarled the brute of a Bloodgorger leader.
To the right of these Gatormen, a looming shape of a Typhon lumbered out of the forest to take up postion next to the winged form of the Seraph who had just landed next to a small mound on the far right of the valley. The last of the legion to emerge from the dark forest was one of thier beast handlers, the Shepherd, who stood behind the Seraph.

Seeing the Legion beast advancing out of the wood, the Witches acted instinctively focusing out the jacks around them, sending each of them a fraction of their magical power. While the three witches where concentrating on the jacks, Darragh ordered his undead soulhunters into a full galop across the the bottom of the ruined chapel towards the mound on the far right of the legions line; the necrotech bodies of the soulhunter cut up the grass with thier hoofs as they galloped after Darragh.
The Bloodgorgers draw their wicked hand weapons that glinted in the afternoon light as they marched forwards toward the old wall in the centre of the valley. The three sisters walked up behind the Bloodgorgers with the Egregore in the centre of them, like a lover been escorted to a grand dance in some grand Khador court. Helleana then reached out with her mind to look through the eyes of the Deathripper to focus on the Stalker; runes of power glowed around her slender hand  as she cast Infernal Machine on the Stalker to increase its speed. Impowered by the magic, the Stalker started running up the left flank towards some boulders. As Helleana left the cortex of the deathripper,she compelled it to run after the Stalker. Morgaen stood next to the Egregore, her mind linking into the old Reaper ordering it into a run to take it up next to the Bloodgorger. To the left of the Reaper was the Necrotech with its Scrap Thrall as it advanced to the right of the broken down wall.
The last witch, Selene, stood behind the Egregore. She looked over the valley happy with how their army had deployed before glancing over her shoulder at her faithful Slayer and sent it instructions to run up to the edge of the old wall.

Selene calmly faced the forces of Legion as she watched as the Seraph takes to the air and flys towards the soulhunters, as it avanced the Typhon seems to be magical pulled forwards. The Seraph  lands on the edge of the small mount and starts to shooting some sort of venom at the soulhunters as they galloped up the slope of the mound. Two of the undead mounts fall in a cloud of hoofs and undead flesh as they are bLasted by the Seraph. Behind the Seraph, Helleana spotted the Shepherd  moving behind the Seraph and raise her staff that glowed faintly; the magic seeming to soothe the Seraph. As Helleana watched the strange magic of the Shepherd, she was distracted by a mist that seemed to  appear around the Gatormen as they ran forward towards the low wall in the centre of the valley.  Out of this magical mist came the Typhon, its three heads looking in every direction for a target. To the right of the Typhon, the legion warlock advanced forwards with runes of power glowing arounded his clawed hands as a deep fog engulfed all the of the legions force. "That is definitely Thagrosh"  said Morgaen to her sisters in her silky voice, "Lord Venethrax will be interested to know of this encounter", noted Selene, "particularly considering how far South we are" Helleana  pointed out. Their conversation was cut short by a warning from the Stalker. Selene reached out with her mind contacting with the Stalker just in time to see the massive form of a Scythean charging towards the small bonejack. She readied the jack to receive a charge but as she watched she saw the beast slow as it ran out of momentum just short of the Stalker.
Unnoticed by the three sisters the Spell martyr walked up to stand next to Thagrosh.

Helleana  looked back to the battle, spending some of her magical power to upkeep Infernal Machine on the Stalker, knowing it will need all the help it can get against the Scythean. Happy it can hold its own, she turned her attention to the other jacks in the sister's battlegroup empowering the old Reaper with magical power. The Stalker advances into the Scythean with the support from the sisters; it being nearly impossible to miss its target but unfortunately the bonejack stumbled on a root and fluffed its attack against the Scythean only causing minor damage. 
Through the fog the Scrap Thrall saw the figure of a Gatorman. In its small necrotech mind, the Thrall thought it should run after the Gatormen in the mist, so it did, arms and legs flinging in all directions as it hurried towards the shadowy figure of the Gatorman in the mist. 
The Egregore floated forward with Helleana and Selene eitherside of it, Selene conjures some of her magical power and boosts the power of the old Reaper with Infernal Machine. Buffed by Selene's magic, the Reaper moves up and fires its harpoon at the Typhon, hitting it through the fog and dragging it screaming towards the cryx battleline. Once the Typhon was in range of the Reaper, he begain smashing the beast but every wound  that opened seems to closed just as quickly on the beast.
Sensing a kill, the Bloodgorgers charge the wounded Typhon hoping to kill it quickly. They hammered and stabbed at the beast but it refused to die. Darragh watched the Typhon as it was thrashed by the Reaper as he ordered his soulhunters to charge the Seraph that had blasted two of their number moments before, but he had misjudged the range and only two of the soulhunters were able to reach the Seraph and caused minimal damage. Darragh charged into the Typhon hoping to finish it off, despiting slashing a massive wound, the Typhon was still standing, barey.
Morgaen joined her sister next to the Egregore,she laid her hands on the Egregore whispering quietly to it as she called forth the power of the night to blacken out the sun and cover thier forces in protective darkness as the Slayer and the deathripper advanced toward the Legion forces.

Selene watched  as darkness blocked out the sun from Morgaen's feat of magical prowess, though the valley was in pitch blackness all of the cryx forces cold see clearly, Morgaen looked at the Typhon raging against the old Reaper smashing the harpoon into pieces and buckling the legs, the Reaper staggered but remained standing.
Off on the right flank, the soulhunters were been smashed by the claws of the Seraph as two more fell to the ground.  The Shepherd advances and uses her soothing magic on the Seraph to calm the beast down.
Through the darkness Helleana saw the Gatormen advancing, spearing two of the Bloodgorgers, killing them dispite there toughend skin. In the darkness a bright glow ripped through the chest of the spell martyr as a blast of magical power distroyed it and sent a ball of energy towards the Witches, seeing the danger a Bloodgorger dived in front of the blast, ending his live to save the lives of his misstress'.

Morgaen focuses on the old Reaper to help it kill the Typhon who finally falls to the blows from the Reaper. Watching the Typhon fall, Selene forced the Deathripper forward towards Thagrosh. Once it was in range, she summons her power to blast at him with magical power, but she was distracted by sounds of battle and shoots at one of the  Gatormen by mistake, freezing in place with magical power. Annoyed with her lack of concentration she focused on Thagrosh hitting him with magical power. She saw through the arc node, Thagrosh absorbing the damge as rune swirled around his hands as he transferred the damage to the winged Seraph.
In the center of the field the Scrap Thrall tried and failled to hit a Gatorman, blowing up in the process and wounding but not killing its target.
The last soulhunter galloped over the low mound towards Thagrosh as Darragh charged at the Seraph  slicing at it but the beast flapped into the air avoiding the blow.
Enraged by the death of their comrades, the last Bloodgorgers charge the Gatormen, smashing two of the strange beasts dead from savage blows. As they fell the Slayer clambered his way over the wall to cover the three witches closely followed by the scuttering Necrotech.

  

The battle was going ill for the sisters, they knew the next few minutes would be decisive. Helleana  watched as the Shepherd  moves to the side of the Seraph and uses her power to heal the deep wounds that had been infilcted by the soulhunters, once healed the beast took to the air moving in to range of the last Bloodgorgers as Darragh chops at the departing beast, leaving a deep gash along the right side. He watched as the great beast fires its venom at the Bloodgorgers, the beast hitting all the Bloodgorgers,  knocking them down but not killing them thanks to their tough skin.
Off to the right, the Deathripper sent a warning to the witches which was cut short as the Scythean  demolished the arc node. In the distance Selene watched as the enermy warlock waved his hands in air as he summons his power to bring back the dead Typhon to stand beside him, the beast moves forward to threaten the weakened Cryx force.

"This isnt going well" Morgaen said to her sisters, trying hard to conceal the worry in her voice. Despite her effort, the three sisters all could feel each others thoughts and the slow  fear of failure was growing inside all of them. " Lord Terminus will not be pleased with these events", said Selene, the stress of battle clear on her face. " I have an idea" said Helleana "but I dont think you will like it". "No, it is too risky", said Morgaen  sensing the plan forming in Helleanas mind. "Do it, its our only chance we are dead if we stay here much longer", said Selene in support of her sister. The words where scarcely out of Selene's mouth when Helleana acted on her plan. Summoning the Slayer, she compelled it to pick up and throw the Egregore as hard as it could towards Thagrosh. As the jack lifted the ball into the air, Helleana  cast her mind into the consciousness of the Egregore  asking for forgiveness and telling the being inside what she needed it to do. The Egregore landed and rolled on the floor before it started to rush rapidly towards Thagrosh, stopping just out of reach of the warlock. "Here we go", said Helleana as she called forth her power and began blasting Thagrosh with magic, hitting and wounding the warlock but not killing him. "That is not good", whispered Helleana as if to herself.

"Darragh can you hear me?" called Selene trying to telepathically link with the battle wizard. "I hear you my lady", came Darraghs reply, " we need you Darragh, you are the only one who can save us now".  Selene seem to be slightly panicking to Darragh as her thoughts entered his mind; a sign of weakness that he will use in the future in the never-ending power struggle that besets all of the Dragon father's champions. " I see what you want my lady", said Darragh as he urged his mount forward he could see the injured Thagrosh. As the warlock came into view, Darragh called on his own magic and cast his hellfire at the weakened warlock hitting and killing the mighty Thagrosh. The Legion beasts sensed their masters demise and fled into the forest to lick their wounds; the Seraph flying over the body of Thagrosh, picking up the fallen leader and carrying him in to the darkening wood.

The battle was over and the Cryx forces were left triumphant, but only just.

My thoughts

That was a hard battle that I should not have won but I got very lucky with the Egregore/ Darragh assassination. I made a few mistakes in the game, like not shooting Thagrosh with the arc node when I had the chance. I also feel if I had been more aggressive with the Bloodgorgers and the Slayer that might have helped. All in all though I am pleased with this list and I dont see it changing much more for my first out of county tournament of the year at Iron Haven in Exeter.

Oh by the way never say "Anything but double one" because the dice gods will curse you and give you this:

Thanks for reading,

Richard.