Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm - Game Six

Having just finished Khagra's Ravagers, I was anxious to try them out - hoping THEY might give the undefeated Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven a run for their money. Amanda assented to playing another game of Warhammer Underworlds for our Friday evening game, and so IT WAS ON!

There were a couple of new things we were trying - first was DESECRATION - Khagra's Ravagers can desecrate objective markers and more than a few of their Objective cards were about desecrating Objectives. Also we tried out the Primacy rule - certain things gain you the Primacy token, or allow you to seize it from your foe - and if you hold it at the end of a round you get a bonus, spent Glory Point ("spent" meaning, it's a Glory point that you count towards your total for determining winner, but can't be used to upgrade a warrior) 

Amanda won the board set up roll off... and went first? Maybe it was because she's starting to realize that a lot of her high scoring objective cards are about holding objectives and so thought going first would mean more objective tokens in HER territory (and less in mine - making it easier to score the hold ALL objectives in enemy territory card). This was fine by me as I could limit her access to those ones in my territory and desecrate them on round one and then play and aggressive game of pushing forward into HER territory to murder and desecrate...

I won the set up roll off and had Amanda set up first, having the larger warband meant I would finish first, regardless, and thus gain the bonus to the roll-off for the first turn. 

I WON that roll-off... but then decided to let Amanda go first - as I had a gambit that allowed me to PUSH ALL Friendly Fighters that weren't in Enemy Territory on hex towards Enemy Territory - which would put me in a much better position. I'd hoped she might try to seize that Objective right on the border, and that one-hex-push would bring Khagra into contact with one of her weaker warriors that I could One-Shot-KO gaining glory, upgrades, desecrating the objective she was standing on and gaining the primacy token...

ROUND ONE

But Amanda didn't do that... Instead she had Kyrae shoot Khagra - because I was stupid enough to set her up within 4 hexes of the shooty-snake-lady-with-4-hex-range!? Ouch. One damage. 

In the power step I DID push everyone once - which put Cragan and Razek on Objective markers. they have an ability that, if they are holding an Objective at the end of the Round, they get to place a desecration token on it. I was holding an Objective card that gave ONE Glory for having two desecration tokens on the board.... because that's what you do, right? Play to the Objective cards...? 

The Push did put Khagra into contact with Kyrssa... though she wasn't on the Objective (which, if taken out on it, would have allowed Khagra to put a desecration token on it - and a THIRD desecration token would inspire my entire warband!) I decided to take a swing at her and hopefully take her out. Khagra does two damage with her basic attack. Kyrssa had only two wounds. though I wouldn't get the desecration token, I would still get a Glory (and an upgrade) and have one less Enemy Fighter out there that could gang up on Khagra - who was suddenly feeling very alone - with half her warband more than a move to her rear, sitting on Objective tokens they hoped to desecrate at the END of the Round!? 

None of this mattered, because I missed. 

Khamyss Charged and attacked Khagra (with Kyrssa's aid) and did TWO MORE damage to Khagra... only one wound left... Yikes! 

I charged Khagra onto the Objective, since Amanda wasn't obliging and moving someone onto it. The same Reaction that allows Khagra to desecrate an objective being held by someone she takes out of action, allows her to desecrate an objective SHE is holding when she takes someone else out of action... and... I missed again. (BOTH attacks I rolled two dice looking for for Smash and Critical Hit results - 50% chance of rolling one of those on each dice, I should have had at least one success each time I attacked... BOTH times I rolled the Dual Support result on BOTH dice... She only had one defence die and only counted dodge and crit results a 33% chance of one success each time) 

So Kyrae shot Khagra again, causing one more damage and taking her out of action. +1 Glory for taking an enemy fighter out of action. +1 Glory for Torturous Death - and objective awarding a single glory for making three attacks against the same enemy fighter in the same round. The Blade-Coven also gained the primacy token for taking an enemy leader out of action. Oh, AND she was able to inspire... someone...?Khamyss, I think...?

Uhhhh.... well now what...? 

AT this point most of my Gambit and Objective cards were entirely useless (most requiring Khagra or Leader to do things with)... and I didn't want to move anyone... so... I spent my next activation drawing a Power Card... which was equally useless to me. 

Morgwaeth sauntered onto an Objective Token and played Regal Vision (a new Power Card I'd added to her deck - one of the Nightvault Generic cards that I thought would go well with the Blade-Coven and their hold-objectives theme). It allowed her to inspire a Friendly Fighter holding an Objective. She also upgraded Lethyr with Rapturous Defence (giving her a bonus defence die) 

Zarshia use my last activation to charge onto the Objective. She has the same ability as Khagra - allowing her to put a desecration token on an objective she held if taking out an Enemy Fighter while holding it. Zarshia only does one damage with either of her attacks (Staff or Spell attack) BUT I was holding a Gambit-Reaction that allowed her to do one extra damage if she rolled a crit result any either die I had roughly a 30% chance of that happening... which would take her out AND I had a Objective card that scored +1 glory if I took out an Enemy Fighter with a Spell Attack... 

Of course I failed... 

I did do ONE would to Lethyr... and didn't take any damage due to Backlash.... so... there's that... 

Round One - End Phase 

Amanda scored two more Glory - one for Devoted Disciple (+1 Glory for having a Friendly Fighter with at least one damage token...) I swear... That warband has an Objective Card that scored a Glory for EVERY POSSIBLE SITUATION THEY COULD POSSIBLY BE IN!? (Oops! Lethyr farted... +1 Glory!) The other was for holding the Primacy token. 

She was then able to upgrade Morgwaeth with Rune of Khaine. 

I scored One Glory for Razed Realm... for having those two desecration tokens. I gave the Champions Cloak to Dour Cragan (gave him +2 move if he charges - I thought of giving it to Razek, who was even FURTHER away from the action... but he was SO far away, it wouldn't have gotten him IN to the action in the next round...)

so... Morgwaeth's already winning 4-1... Zarshia alone and surrounded... Things were not looking good.  

ROUND TWO

Amanda won the roll-off to go first and Khamyss started things off - attacking Zarshia (with Kyrssa's aid) and doing two damage. 

She then used Headlong Fury to make a move, bringing her into contact with Zarshia - without placing a move token... 

In the Power Phase I was able to scored Desolate Demain - a surge Objective scored if each objective token in one or more players' territories has a Desecration token... Both of the objectives in my OWN territory still had those desecration tokens... so... This allowed me to further upgrade Dour Cragan with Desecrator Gauntlets. 

On my first activation, Dour Cragan charged. The five move brought him into contact with Lethyr. At the end of the move action, he was able to push her one into the Lethal Hex, doing one damage - which didn't really matter, as Cragan was going to hit her, and he did enough damage to one-shot her at her full wounds... 

I just wanted her there as Zarshia would provide support, thus marginally increasing my odds of NOT MISSING AGAIN. He did take her out... but.. BECAUSE she'd previously taken the one damage from the Lethal Hex, BEFORE his actual attack, I wasn't able to seize the Primacy Token... 

I...

I just can't win here... 

Cragan DID take her out... and I did score ONE more Glory Point... 

Khamyss attacked Zarshia - TWICE - with her combo attack... WITH Kyrssa's aid... and MISSED - BOTH times! WOOO!

So I played Eternal Vengeance - which would allow me to re-roll an attack die in an attack on the next activation. 

But I didn't even need it!? Zarshia rollled a crit and a success with her staff and Kyrssa rolled NOTHING and already had one damage - so Zarshia took her OUT! +1 glory for me! 

HOLY SH!T - I TIED UP THE GAME!?

And then it was Amanda's activation... And Khamyss took Zarshia out of action. +1 Glory. +1 More Glory from Consecrate to Khaine - a surge objective scored when taking an enemy holding an objective out of action. 

On MY activation, Razek moved up... as there wasn't much else I could do... 

Morgwaeth used the Tome of Glories - an upgrade-action that allowed her to score a glory point if she was currently holding an objective, but it put a charge token on her (which didn't matter, as i twas her last activation).

For my last activation I discardered an entirely useless Objective card that could not be scored and drew a new one - hoping for lightening to strike! It did not... 

Round Two - End Phase

Amanda scored two more Objective cards: Blessings of Khaine (+1 for having two inspired warriors) and Daughters of the First Temple (+1 for having two enemy taken out of action).

All I did was discard entirely useless Objectives in hopes of drawing something... SOMETHING(!?) that I could use... I did not... 

ROUND THREE

Amanda started again, attacking Dour Cragan with Morwaeth and doing THREE DAMAGE!? And then scored Carve a Rune (+1 Glory for a successful attack action that included a crit result) and then she played Fanatical Faith - limiting the damage I could score in the next activation to one... 

Regardless... I kind of needed to do SOMETHING, while I still had the opportunity - with Morgwaeth dealing out three damage every round, Cragan wasn't going to last long... So, Cragan Charged. AT the end of his move, he used the Desecrator Gauntlets to push Morgwaeth off the Objective and out of contact with Cragan. Cragan attacked Khyrae, but did only one damage, instead taking her out... BUT, in the Power step I was able to use a gambit to desecrate an empty adjacent objective, and then score one final Objective card - a surge objective scored when I desecrated an Objective... 

On Amanda's next activation, she had Morgwaeth dance past Cragan and around behind Kyrae and stabbed at Cragan, missing. Then she played a Gambit that healed her ONE damage point (Crimson Rejuvenation) 

and then played another that gave them both Guard Tokens.

Niether of these were really at all necessary, as Cragan had charged... there was NOTHING he was going to be doing for the rest of the Round/Game... 

Because I had sweet F-A to do, I discarded one of the useless Objective cards I had and drew a new one - hoping it might help SOMEONE in SOME way!? 

Nope.

Kyrae attacked Cragan and took him out of action.... Scored one Glory for taking him out and second Glory because the had the High Oracles Butcher upgrade. 

I drew another Power Card. I COULD have charged Razek at Khamyss this activation... (or the previous one, for that matter...) but that would have brought him closer to all of the DAughters on the board and left him with two rounds to just stand there and take whatever they felt like dishing out.... So he just hid behind the blocked hex, hoping I might draw a Power Card, as the Objective deck had been expired. 

On Amanda's final activation, Khamyss made her move - inspired she had a combo attack that COULD do 4 damage. I wasn't SUPER concerned about this - unless she had some kind of buff-to-damage-gambit card - because I'd given Razek the Bolstered by Hatred - which gave him +1 Wounds. 

She did her worst - causing two damage - and then had some sort of ability (or ANOTHER card!?) that let her push herself one away. 

As Razek had yet to activate, he chased after her.... and did nothing. Inspired, he had THREE Smash dice - with two damage. So, 50% chance of a success on each. She had two Dodge defence dice 33% chance of a success on each... and only two wounds... I SHOULD have been able to one-shot her. But, nope. 

Round Three - End Phase

I scored One a Dark Road (+1 glory if one surviving Friendly Fighter had three Upgrades or ALL Surviving Fighters have at least one) 

Amanda didn't score anymore Objective Cards. I think this was because she'd scored every damned card in her deck!? (well... not QUITE....) 

She ended the game with TWELVE Glory and I ended with six...

Do I just SUCK THAT BAD at this game!? Is she just THAT GOOD!? I mean I know I made mistakes and she made some good plays... but I had to remind her, like, FOUR TIMES when the different types of gambit cards could be played!? Does she have a horseshoe implanted in her butt...?! (she did ride horses as a child... there were... a few accidents!?). Do I have just THAT CRAPPY of luck!? Some clever perfect storm of all of the above...!? 

The worst part is I had discarded this Objective Card - Absolute Desecration - Score this in the third end phase if there are four or more Desecration tokens on the battlefield... I'd discarded it at the end of Round Two thinking there was little chance I'd actually desecrate a fourth one, let along Amanda would actually allow the to REMAIN desecrated - it's REALLY EASY to remove desecrate tokens - if an Enemy Fighter is holding an Objective at the end of a Power Step, the desecration token is removed. Given how many Objective Cards she has that gives points for holding objectives, or doing things WHILE holding objectives, I figure there was ZERO chance this would happen... and yet... here we were at the end of the game with FOUR Desecration token on the board!? Not that it would have changed the outcome at all. I probably would have still only scored 9-10 to Amanda's 12... but it wouldn't have been THAT big of a loss... 

Not sure when we're going to play again... Sunday was supposed to be "skirmish night" for either Warcry or Warhammer Underworlds... Amanda took some offence at me expressing my displeasure at her haranguing me to explain when and how a gambit card of hers was to be played, mid-way through the third round... while I was trying to figure out how to salvage something out of the situation with my OWN cards, that were all completely new to me... while she was ALREADY WINNING 12-5!? 

Maybe Finnegan will play with me on Sunday. 

Maybe she'll be over it and ready to hand me my ass again... 

Definitely need to keep the warband together and not let numerically superior warband separate out and surround leader and wizard. Got to watch out for all those ranged attacks Both Morgwaeth and Khamyss have hurtful range two attacks and Kyrae has one of the longest range attacks I've seen in the game, so far, at 4 hexes (Hadzu, the archer in the Dread Pageant only has a range of 3 - which seems odd being only one hex more than the reach of Morgwaeth's glaive). 

Morgwaeth's has a pretty solid deck. Maybe I need to spend some time going through the generic cards and filter out some of the junk in Khagra's and the Dread Pageant and replacing them with...? I don't know... stuff that can actually be USED!?