Warmachine Battle Report: Issyria vs. Deneghra

Another Sunday and another game of Warmachine!  Sweet!  This time I paired off against Keith with his purple candy Retribution of Scyrah against the original warwitch herself, Denegra!  On Keith's side of the table he had Issyria in the lead backed up by a Hydra (which is being proxied by the Convergence Cipher), a Phoenix, and a ghost sniper.  Meanwhile I decided to switch things up and dig deep into my Army Transport, unearthing a Seether, a Deathripper, a small unit of bane thralls, and of course a pet Skarlock for Denny.  We decided from the beginning to keep it a friendly game as both of us were trying to get the feel for our units (I've actually only played my banes a couple of times and I've never used them since the switch to Mark II) and even allow pre-measuring!  How's that for living on the edge!!!

I won the roll off and decided to let Keith be first player.  With such small forces and being a casual game it didn't really matter but I still like to see just what I'm facing before I have to deploy.  With that done, we quickly headed into the game!

Most of the Retribution force advanced up the center while the ghost slunk off to the right side of the table and Issyria cast some buffing spells onto her Phoenix (I believe that one of them was Admonition which buffed its armor to 20).

My own troops advanced along the center as well in response though I did have my Seether and Skarlock start sliding over to the right in case I needed to deal with the ghost.  I've never faced one before but usually letting a sniper run around on the flank is a bad idea so I wanted to be ready to deal with him.  I also sent my Deathchicken out in front so I could try to make use of its arc node before it was turned into a 4 point piece of scrap metal (I'm not a fan of its cost in Mark II in case you hadn't guessed). 

Channeling through the node, I was able to hit the Hydra with a corrosive stream of venom which I followed up with crippling grasp (yeah, still gotta work on my timing).  Hmmm... maybe the Chickens are worth it after all...

While this was happening, I moved my Skarlock over to try to cast venom onto the ghost but the dice would have nothing to do with it.  Worried that I'd loose my little pet too early, I decided to give the ghost something else to worry about and run in with the Seether.  I wasn't able to get him into melee but at least it gave him something else to worry about in the meantime.

Next turn, the Retribution continued their steady advance in the center toward my main force and both the Hydra and Phoenix opened fire on the Deathchicken but completely missed it! (Definitely reconsidering my opinion of the Chickens now... Need to try fielding them again soon.)  While this was happening, the ghost quickly fell back to rejoin the rest of the battle group and get away from my heavy 'jack that was looming over him.  As he fled, he let loose a shot at the Seether, causing some structural damage but thankfully nothing else.

As played turn over to me and with his troops nicely positioned, it was time to try to hit his heavies as hard as I could.  Deneghra moved forward slightly and then channeled venom through the Deathchicken again.  This time the stream was able to catch both 'jacks and Issyria in one shot which I followed up with a second venom just for good measure.

Next, the bane thralls charged forward and cleaved their axes into the Phoenix and Hydra.  I was hoping that their dark shroud would lower the 'jacks armor enough that I could do some substantial damage but I was only able to damage their shields.  The Seether went next and followed up on that annoying ghost, squashing him into the dirt!  All in all not a bad turn but I had really been hoping to do a little more damage to the heavies.

 

On his turn Issyria was quickly moved away from the combat while Keith inched his heavies forward and attacked the closest bane thralls, quickly dispatching their ghostly forms before hacking into the Deathchicken with his Phoenix.  Even with its high defense, the onslaught proved to be too much this time and the Deathripper was reduced to scrap.

 

Having lost half of my Banes and my Deathripper, I decided to take a chance and commit Deneghra herself to the fray.  I unleashed the withering on the two heavy 'jacks then charged her forward onto the debris of the Deathripper.  She lashed out at the Phoenix in the hopes of taking advantage of its current state with the remaining Banes following her lead but even with this combined assault I wasn't able to finish off the Phoenix (Quick note here... I actually should have killed it but I forgot to take the Dark Shroud armor reduction into account.  Just too many modifiers to keep track of this time).  With both of the Phoenix's arm systems and its cortex still remaining, I bracing myself for the worst and waited for the killing blow to land...

 

...which amazingly enough didn't happen.  Between average dice rolls, the lingering effect of the withering and Deneghra's high defense, Keith wasn't able to land a single hit on her (Another quick note... Keith had used Issyria's feat this turn but this time it was his turn to forget.  Guess it worked out in the end) though the Hydra did dispatch the two Banes that were harassing it.
On my turn, I took full advantage of my ridiculous luck from the previous turn.  The Seether took advantage of its position behind the fray in the center of the field and charged the Phoenix, ripping into the back of the myrmidon and finally destroying it.

With the Phoenix gone, I moved Deneghra around the side of the Seether and hit Issyria with venom but was only able to wound her.  The Skarlock then followed her lead as he moved in and did the same but at the end of the turn she was still alive.

With his forces rapidly disappearing, Keith tried to attack the Seether his Hydra but between damage it had sustained earlier and the crippling grasp that had been in place from the beginning of the game it wasn't able to damage it.

With the end in sight, the Seether tore into the Hydra and was able to finally destroy it which left Issyria open for Deneghra to land the killing blows.

Definitely a good game even with the mistakes that Keith and I made but it was meant to be a friendly game.  We talked some afterward about his force selection since this was his first time fielding the Retribution and we both saw some potential directions to move in for expanding his force.  In particular Issyria's feat gives her entire army truesight and lets them all roll and extra die on their attacks, choosing the best to use.  With its current build there's not a lot that can benefit from this but if he added in some of the riflemen that feat would become quite a bit more devastating.  It will definitely be interesting to see how it develops in the future and it was also a learning game for me as well.  Maybe the Deathrippers really are worth four points after all...  Until next time...