Post by chrisr on Dec 1, 2016 0:13:42 GMT
Perdita was nervous. The reports of a Neverborn raid on the edge of the ranch territory appeared true, she could sense they were close. But there in the middle of the field stood a stone spire that had not been there last time she had visited this area. And it radiated malign power. Killing Neverborn was never easy, but the presence of the spire troubled her. Still she was honour-bound to clear her land of the infestation.
She looked round her crew. The faithful Effigy was in tow along with a pair of Hounds. Francisco was there as always. The Emissary had arrived unannounced and she welcomed it. It had brought along a Death Marshall. They made poor conversationalists and she always worried that the Marshall's were Lady J's creatures, but she felt she could rely on them. She couldn't say that of the other member of the party - her father, Papa Loco- who had insisted on tagging along.
Suddenly the Neverborn appeared. She recognised Nekima, Barbaros and Lelu. There was also the lowering presence of a Mature Nephilim and a brood of 3 Tots.
The hounds bounded down the right side of the field whilst the rest of the crew advanced slowly forward in the centre. The Marshall lured Papa into a Pine Box. 'Best place for him' she thought. Nekima started to advance with a Tot down the left. Barbaros came down the right. Lelu and 2 Tots advanced down the centre and then the giant winged Nephilim. Perdita shook herself out of her reverie. She glided forward to stand beside Francisco and emptied her Peacebringer into the Mature Nephilim. It died. This might be easier than she had feared.
Suddenly Barbaros charged across and engaged Francisco. He did little damage and Perdita expected her older brother to dice the inhuman creature. But something strange happened. Francisco's blows were getting through but as they did light flickered from the spire and the damage achieved was disappointingly small. After Francisco she too had a go at the crooked creature but it survived. Then the Emissary, but it too couldn't bring the killing blow to bear. Almost every blow drew gouts of Black Blood and all of them suffered damage from the foul ichor.
Meanwhile Lelu had tracked down the hounds. One was pinned. The other too close for comfort. The Death Marshall moved to the rescue, but he looked as though he was going to be too late. The Tots were bouncing forward leaving foul markers everywhere and Nekima was slipping along the flank as well.
Barbaros turned his focus on Perdita and a lucky blow drove her back into Francisco and brought her to her knees. She gasped as she realized how close she was to death. Now Nekima joined the fray. She reduced the Effigy to a single wound and pushed it close to Barbaros. The next wound on Barbaros caused the Effigy to die from Black Blood.
Reeling Perdita tried to assess the situation. It was if the Neverborn were defending the spire and the spire was protecting them. There was only one solution. Kill them.
Nekima leapt into combat with Perdita but the protective ward from Francisco kept her safe and Nekima was beyond the help of the spire. Perdita killed her. She then killed Barbaros. Lelu killed the Hounds but her father, mad as a hatter, blew himself up taking out the little demon. The Death Marshall captured a Tot in the Pine Box. The Emissary killed another. The field was almost empty. A solitary Tot ran off. But as she limped towards the spire a solid blackness fell. Staying out here was too dangerous. Perdita and her crew retired from the field. Cleansing the area of the markings left by the Neverborn and investigating the Spire would have to wait for another day.
Ben Hewkin kindly came over to start my week 6 games. We played at 66SS (his crew was 61SS). The strategy was Turf War which meant the Spire doubled as the Turf marker and strategy VP depended on getting within 6". I chose Breakthrough and Protect Territory for schemes and Ben had Make Them Suffer and Breakthrough.
The first turn looked very good. Ben moved up the Mature Nephilim to a position where he was out of Perdita's range. She then used Relocate to move 6" forward for free and filled the thing with lead 
But at the start of Turn 2 Barbaros moved forward into contact with Francisco. When I tried to kill him I discovered that the extra minus flip for damage from the Spire plus Ben's willingness to devote soulstones to mitigate damage made him difficult to shift. With the way the terrain fell I was struggling to get into the 6" radius of the spire without getting in his engagement range. And he kept pushing models back. Giving them slow. And generally being a pain. The only way past would expose a model to being charged by Nekima and I didn't want a lone model getting picked on by her!
On Turn 3 Barbaros attacked Perdita and flipped a Red Joker for damage. That put a serious crimp in her game.
However when he tried to hammer home the advantage Perdita killed Nekima. After that my crew gradually wiped him out (all bar one Tot) but he had scored all the points he needed. He picked up a Strategy VP in turns 2,3, and 4 plus 3VP for Breakthrough and 1VP for Make Them Suffer. I only got 2 from the Strategy and 3 from Protect Territory. The old Guild failing of not having the speed to get across the board stopped me getting anything on Breakthrough. So 7-5 to Ben.
I remembered afterwards that you are supposed to flip for a 6th turn. That could have saved my bacon. But Ben deserved the win. I blew a big hole in his initial strategy but he adapted and used Barbaros to hold up my heavy hitters (and help score Strat VPs) whilst Lelu took out my scheme runners. Muddled thing on my part meant the Death Marshall and Papa didn't really do a job. It was also the first game I've played without The Judge and I really missed his flexibility.
Regards
C