Warhammer Underworlds - Game 15

Arriving too late, Gwynne Ironsoul and her Condemnors found their compatriots in the Sacrosanct Cahmber, Stormsire's Cursbreakers slain. Killed in an ambush by vile chaos warriors and their supposed Duaghter's of Khaine allies. Seeing the later flee the scene, Ironsoul's Condemnors gave chase, swearing vengeance.... 

Amanda wanted to play another game Sunday evening. She'd originally suggested another 3-player game, but Finnegan wasn't' feeling into it... I wasn't sure what to play. I'd been looking at the Dread Pageant again, wondering about how to build a deck around them that wouldn't suck, but I hadn't quite gotten to that... So I thought I'd try out one of the other Stormcast Eternal warbands and grabbed Ironsoul's Condemnors. Lady Harrow's Mournflight, the other warband in Champions of Dreadfane, had a pretty solid deck and beat down Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven without any additions or changes... so I thought "how bad can Ironsoul's deck be...? They should be able to hold their own against the dainty witch aelves. 

Amanda chose boards first and I chose to set them up long edge to long edge - to make sure I was able to get AT the Duaghters of Khaine. I have to admit, I didn't really look through the deck much, figured I'd just play with whatever I drew. I did have a vague notion that there wasn't a LOT of holding objective cards. 

Though I did draw one that required me to hold one in enemy territory in my initial draw. Along with one that scored for knocking someone back and one that required all the fighters to do the same thing move or charge or go on guard. 

I won the roll off to decide who went first. So I COULD have gone first and either Tavian of Sarnassus or Broduc Blightbane COULD have gotten to Objective #5, which was within enemy territory. I am reluctant to try and do such a thing on my FIRST activation as that would give Amanda FOUR activations to get them off... ALSO, Objective #5 was within two hexes of where Morgwaeth started, so totally within range of her brutal Glaive of Khaine - with CLEAVE negating the Condemnors Block/Shields defence.

So I let her go first...

ROUND ONE

Morgwaeth charged onto Objective #5 (the only one I could possibly get to) and stabbed Tavian of Sarnassus causing two wounds... Then she scored Bold Conquest -  Dual-Surge Objective, scored  immediately after an activation if made a Charge action in that activation and is holding an objective. Check! +1 Glory for Amanda and her Aelves. She then played Drilled to Perfection - giving both Morgwaeth and Kyrae Guard tokens, and upgraded Morgwaeth with Great Strength...

I played Inevitable Blow - meaning I could chose my next attack to be eithee Cleave or Ensnare - I chose Ensnare because ALL the Daughters of Khaine use Dodge defence, and Ensnare negated Dodge results. 

Tavian charged Khamyss. All I needed was one success on three dice (which had a 1 in 3 chance of a success - or crit - which is just a super success) and for her to NOT roll a crit on the one die... so.. I missed, of course. 

Khamyss attacked back at Tavian and did one more damage. 

Well there was no getting Morgwaeth off of that Objective short of killing her - and she had support in the one hex that one of the two who could attack her would have to get to, reducing the likelihood of that happening, so I decided to try and take out that support. Brodus Blightbane charged Kyrae, as he coudl concievably take her out with one shot. I even rolled a crit (which, as it happens, is the inspire condition for all of this warband - roll a crit on either attack or defence)! She, of course rolled a crit AND a success... so, nope. 

Lethyr moved onto Objective #1

Gwynne Ironsoul charged in - I COULD have moved into the hex next to Brodus and attacked Kyrae with support from Brodus... but Morgwaeth would then be giving support to Kyrae's defence AND potentially an attack in the next activation. Ironsould couldn't take either of them out, so I thought I might as well start whittling down Morgwaeth... I mean... she had THREE attack dice looking for hammers - that's like 50% chance of success on three dice versus two dice with... well... 66% chance of success with that guard token... so.. yeah... she missed. 

Kyrssa jumped on to Objective #3

ROUND ONE - END PHASE

I did score Strength in Unity - for all my warriors having a charge token +1 Glory. Woo! I upgraded Ironsoul with a Consecrated Pendant giving her +1 wound. 

Amanda scored Ritualize Formation and Supremacy for three glory each, bringing her total to seven... 

Yeah... 

She did a bunch of upgrading with cards she had in hand Morgwaeth got Survival Instincts (which effectively put her ALWAYS on guard!?) and Khamyss got Great Fortitude (+1 Wounds) and Lethyr got Rapturous Defence (+1 defence die) - but I wasn't really paying attention to this at the time... she was just putting cards down and I was trying to figure out what the hell I was going to do!? 

This was going Fabulously. 

I kept the two Objectives I was holding - as it still seemed conceivable that I could... y'know... score those (why are you laughing!? You're laughing WITH me, right?) and drew Martial Prowess... Okay, I'll admit THAT one seemed a little unlikely... considering how my last round went... 

ROUND TWO

I missed taking a few pictures....

Amanda started things off and Khamyss finished off Tavian (+1 Glory = 8). With MOrgwaeths' ability she inspired Khamyss. Then she played Regal Vision, and that inspired Morgwaeth. Then she upgraded Morgwaeth with Hunter's Tenacity, which meant after making an Attack action against an adjacent enemy fighter that drove them back, she could push into the hex her target had been in.  

I played Champions of Sigmar (which gave me an innate One Support) meaning I counted as having one success, IF I actually HAD someone in support. So Brodus Blightbane moved. Charged, actually, meaning he would not be able to act again in the Round... I SHOULD have just stayed where he was and hit Kyrae as many times as he had to unti he finally hit and took her out... but I moved him... and then Amanda asked if she could play a card she forgot to play... and I said, "sure".

So she played Fanatical Faith - the most damage I could do in the next activation was one... I was really hoping to hit her with Brodus - do 3 damage and knock her back three - because that's what he does when inspired. Passing through the Lethal Hex would deal another damage taking her out.... 

I did actually hit her and did the one damage, and THAT's when Amanda let me know that she had Survival Instincts and was on guard and I couldn't even drive her back off the Objective and across the lethal hex... so instead of taking 4 damage and taken out of action... I did ONE damage. 

Morgwaeth hit Ironsoul doing FOUR damage (Inspired + Great Strength) - the only reason Ironsoul survived was because she had the Consecrated Pendant. 

Ironsoul moved back in. I couldn't really charge, it was only my second activation and Ironsoul was my only fighter that could do actions. I COULD have charged... but then I'd get the one swing, and do only two damage (not enough to take her out) assuming I could even hit... IF she somehow missed in her next TWO actions I might get in TWO swings... 

That super didn't happen. In Amanda's next activation, Morgwaeth finished off  Ironsoul and, in the one after that, she one-shotted Brodus... 

I spent my last two activations drawing cards for giggles. 

ROUND TWO - END PHASE

Amanda scored Dug In for another four points and got an additional point for holding the Primacy token... for a grand total of SIXTEEN (to my ONE). 

I discarded and drew a new hand for Round Three (because, that's the rules... you play out the three Rounds - I mean I COULD have draw cards that could push enemy or... something... There are objective (admittedly not in Ironsoul's Deck - for enemies doing certain things - The Dread Pageant has a Hybrid that gives you one if your leader holds an objective in enemy territory OR and ENEMY leader holds one in YOUR territory!? ). I read through my cards and there was nothing I could do and looked up and noticed Amanda had already put away her cards!? She said she wouldn't have been able to score anything else as all the cards she had left in her deck required KILLING ENEMIES... of which there were now NONE... So we called it... 

I'd kind of already been having a pretty awful day, I'd kind of given up on the idea of playing, but Amanda suggested we do as she thought it might cheer me up and this was just ended up being the crap icing on top of a day of shitcake. 

So discouraging. Do I just SUCK at this game!? 

I'll look into messing with the Dread Pageant deck next... I have some ideas... 

Or maybe go back to playing the Orruks (though I'm pretty sure Amanda will figure out how to take them out in a game or two). 

I am also ALMOST finished painting another warband - The Grymwatch! So maybe I'll try something NEW next?

Assuming I get the copy of Cursed City that I asked my FLGS to get in for me, that will probably be the last Warhammer Underworlds warband I paint for a little bit as I'll be shifting gears to get THOSE minis painted! 

I do hope we'll continue playing Warhammer Underworlds - at least until I get the Cursed City minis painted and start THAT campaign! 

Despite Sunday being just awful, I did get out for a bit of a ride today and found some crocuses blooming!

I also got a last bit of prep work done in the basement game room and should be able to start PAINTING tomorrow! Like, the WALLS! If I mange to keep the momentum up, that should be done by the end of the week, but the weekend I COULD be working on the floors and potentially starting to move stuff back in there by the following weekend!? Maybe we'll be playing Warhammer Quest: Cursed City in our fancy new game room!