Lord Assassin Morghoul’s Runners and Gunners at One Stop Shop

On March 25th, I wanted to head down to One Stop Shop and get a game in during the regular Thursday night Warmachine meet-up.  But what to bring to the table?  The buzz on the Skorne forums after the “Final” field test update has mostly surround epic Morghoul.  Between the January 29th update and final update, Morghoul was the most transformed Skorne warlock, which led to a lot of discussion (and even some impassioned ranting) surrounding the Lord Assassin.  What better way to solidify my thoughts on his new incarnation than to ask him, very politely, if he wouldn’t mind leading some troops into battle for me?

Both the Master Tormentor and Lord Assassin are very mobile warlocks, and bring a bit of their maneuverability to the beasts they command.  The Lord Assassin does not outright buff movement distance, however, so faster beasts are needed to keep up with him.  Cyclops it is!

My troop selection was a bit of a grab bag.  I knew I wanted to bring Bloodrunners, as I have had loads of fun with them in their previous versions.  Thinking that the Bloodrunners would be the forward interference, I figured that being able to support them with some ranged attacks would be the ticket.  The Lord Assassin has no AOE spell and the Cyclops lack any way of generating AOEs, so I made space for the Venator Catapult.  I avoided a full unit of Venator Reivers, as I wanted to bring some line infantry with me as well and I was running short on points.  A minimum unit of Reivers and a minimum unit of Karax sounded better to me than a full 10-man squad. I ended up with a single point left, so along came the gobbers. I didn’t really care that the gobbers were there but they’re the only 1 point option I have (though while I was at One Stop, I asked for them to bring me in a Feralgeist).

Here is the final result:

Lord Assassin Morghoul (-6pts)

• Molik Karn
• Cyclops Savage
• Cyclops Brute

Bloodrunners (Leader + 5) = 5pts
Bloodrunner Master Tormentor = 2pts
Venator Reivers (Leader + 5) = 5 pts
Venator Catapult Crew (Leader + 2) = 3pts
Praetorian Karax (Leader + 5) = 4pts
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew (Leader + 1) = 1pt
Total: 41 – 6 = 35 pts

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After coming up with my force, the only thing left for me was to find an opponent. When I arrived at One Stop Shop, Will was ready and waiting, so Menoth would be my opposition. Here’s what Will brought out:

Feora, Protector of the Flame (-6 pts)

• Redeemer (bonded)
• Castigator
• Vanquisher

Temple Flameguard (Leader + 9) with attachment = 8 pts
Flameguard Cleansers (Leader + 5) = 5 pts
Choir (Leader + 3) = 2pts
Vassal = 2pts
Covenant = 2pts

I had seen his list in action as I spectated a game during the previous week and was not looking forward to all the burnination I was sure to suffer. Considering what I had on the table, most of my infantry could find themselves wiped out before I even got to the fight. We decided not to play a scenario, then tossed out some terrain out on a the table. A small hill was placed on the edge of each deployment zone on the left of each player. We threw some 4″x6″ woods down along the center line on the left and right. We placed an obstacle, about 6″x1.5″ and under 1″ high, right in the center. A two-story inn occupied one corner of my opponent’s deployment zone but was largely out of the way.

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Will and I made a few rules mistakes during the match, involving the obstacle and moving over it, and at one point I forced a beast that had lost its spirit after forgetting to heal it during Morghoul’s activation.  However, the outcome of the match was not affected by our gaffes.  Following is a run-down of what happened.

Throughout the entire game, the Redeemer and Vanquisher mercilessly lobbed flaming death across the field from their position advancing towards the middle of the board. My models were either: so low armour that the blast damage from the Skyhammer took them out, or so low armour that being on fire was 100% fatal.  Molik Karn spent the entire game on fire, as did the Cyclopse Savage.  The Brute was burning for two of the three turns.  The Cleansers on my right flank didn’t end up doing much, though they did take out the Bloodrunner Master Tormentor that got to them, though they ate a couple of catapult shots in return.  I was thankful I brought the Karax, as having Morghoul immune to blast damage meant I wasn’t TOO worried about all the explosions around him.  Though, you know, being on fire is bad, m’kay?

I sent the Bloodrunners haring in on my left flank to try to get to the TFG, which they did eventually do, using Shadowplay to get a single strike on Feora at the top of turn 2 for one whole damage! This was after a three-man CRA tagged Feora for one or two damage from the Venators, so Feora was mildly irritated, I’m sure.  Though the Bloodrunners were put to death by a lot of flame spears (despite not being able to CMA the ‘runners, there were so many TFG that they got all but one of the Bloodrunners on their counterattack), they did succeed in gumming up the TFG out of my way and keeping Feora more or less where I wanted her on the edge of the TFG group instead of behind it.  Eventually, Morghoul gave Molik Karn Ghost Walk so he could charge through the obstacle in midfield towards the sliver of Feora’s base that he could see behind the Vanquisher and ahead of the Redeemer. A single charging weaponmaster combo-strike cut Feora down.

Though I won, had I not been able to get to Feora with Molik Karn (not very difficult with his move 6, reach, sidestep, but still…), Will’s jacks would have burned my entire army up around me.  I  would have been forced to get Morghoul right up into the thick of things and rely on his high def and a couple of transfers to maybe get him to appear near Feora and slice her up himself.  However, with Feora immune to fire, Will could have saturated the area around Morghoul with four AOEs and hoped his low armour would give in.  Basically, had I not brought Karn, I would have gotten completely slaughtered.  I will give the list a try against a different opponent though I will have to resist the urge to fiddle with it.

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