- Nick was the only other player to turn up and he deserves to not play against Cryx once in a while (I promised that the next time we played I wouldn't use eSkarre - seemed like the decent thing to do going a step further and change factions seeing as we'd had a game the previous night)
- Chris was also there but I smash Chris every other week and that joke is getting pretty old
- Taking a break is healthy and it allows you to appreciate how much Khador sucks donkey's balls. Nah, jokes - they're ok. But damn their 'jacks are slow!!! SPD4! With no SPD buff! (edit - no SPD buff from pButcher)
- For the briefest of moments I toyed with taking Khador to CtA (before I lit the fire on my painting and simultaneously realised that Khador sucks donkey's balls...)
The Dojo is such a wonderfully supportive, sub-zero environment to play in. You lose the feeling in your hands moments before you lose any sense of location in the world as dogs bark, guns fire off outside, and you ponder the prospect of a pig hunt happening in the valley of death next door. It's like the West Auckland of the North Shore. Frightening stuff.
Anyway... we've all grown a little bit more over an extended period of gaming. Chris no longer whimpers and whines and shudders when I screw up royal. Now he just points at the whiteboard...
Dojo motivation - cruel but factual...
The "Nick pop yo feat" went up after Tuesday night when Nick forgot for three turns to pop Jarls feat. The "Dave you suck" note went up after I continued to suck at Warmachine despite copious and frequent practice. Go figure...
Why this game is getting a write-up is because Nick and I both achieved new heights of awesome (I'm serious now... we actually levelled up this time instead of levelling down).
pButcher and Friends had just inflicted serious carnage amongst eMadraks horde and at this point in the game I'd lost only a single Eliminator. In return Nick was down all bar one (it turns out VERY IMPORTANT) Fennblade, the Fellcaller, and the Chronicler (after a peach of a shot from Eyriss). Except for forgetting to launch explosive death from the controlled Explosives Cache at the Knocked Down surviving Fennblade I was sitting pretty. Butcher had Iron Flesh up, the dog was parked behind, and he was camping 4. I was basically daring Nick to have a go at long odds.
I'll just pause for a moment here... I realised I hadn't used the Explosives Cache just as I hit the button to switch the Deathclock. How many players have experienced that I wonder? Time out and - BOOM - oops, synapses fire and you realise you've forgotten something and you're just a split-second too late. Gutted. It was important too!
Now - the reason I levelled up here is because I figured out what was going to happen before Chris needed to break it down into Steps 1-5. The reason Nick levelled up is because he gained a new and very valuable gaming experience that saved his ass and from this point in the game, despite being under enormous pressure in terms of resources, he actually won it comfortably. And here my friends is the secret:
Power attack - Slam.
Here's the order of activations:
- surviving Fennblade stands up, sacs action, moves to just within 8.5" of an Impaler and less than 2" away from Butcher.
- Impaler Slams the Fenn which flies into Butcher and knocks him down (goodbye DEF19...)
- Bomber advances to within "can scatter but can't miss" range of the Eliminator blocking Madrak's charge. Eliminator dies.
- Runebearer uses one-shot ability to place Blood Fury on Madrak.
- Madrak charges Butcher. Some chopping of a very big axe later... Nick wins the game.
This time it just so happened that everything worked out - the coincidental positioning of the Impaler for the Slam and not rolling a "1" for Slam distance being the crucial factors. We semi-crunched numbers afterwards about whether Madrak could have killed Butcher at DEF19/ARM22 and full boxes and it felt very 50/50. Blood Fury for Weaponmaster makes a big difference but it's offset somewhat by the boosting needed to hit. Theoretically he gets 3 swings with boosted attack rolls plus the Thresher from Feat plus the nearby Bomber having a go under Feat. Then he's dice -7 for damage. Hrm...
Good game though and everyone got something out of it. I felt the satisfaction of raping most of Nick's army in a turn (Butcher didn't even pop Feat to achieve this!) and seeing the Slam move before the explanation. Nick felt the satisfaction of Slamming one of his own guys and beating all the colours of the rainbow out of Butchers Knocked Down fat ass. And Chris felt the satisfaction of having to sit through another Noobfest, questioning the very reason for his existence and sobbing quietly while we both abused the game he loves.
Dont forget that Chris does feel better about his own ability in watching baby seals flail about trying and club each other. Its an ego thing.
ReplyDeleteI feel of course the complete opposite, having been clubbed by said seal. Sigh.
I have to ask, and it may elicit a facepalm moment here, but what was the Wardog doing when the fennblade toddled up? Kujo is pretty much designed to stop this sort of mayhem...........
ReplyDeleteYes, the dog was placed to be perfectly blocked from charging by my own models. In fact Butcher was where he was due to the Wardog capping a Fennblade that was engaging some Riflemen. The placement of the Wardog (and the blocking Winterguard Riflemen) was one of my more significant derps in that game.
ReplyDeleteThanks for asking. Facepalm forcefully applied.