4 rounds of jank

Introduction

I’ve had another tournament, a 2-day event. Unfortunately, due to a conflict in scheduling, I couldn’t attend the final round on the second day. No biggy, I’ll just take whichever lists I feel like and grind out some games.
As I’ve now played Denny 3 a bunch of times, I did want to explore Asphyxious 3 a bit more, so needed a new pair for him. I landed on the following:

Cryx
[Theme] Black Industries
[Asphyxious 3] Asphyxious the Hellbringer [+24]
– Barathrum [15]
– Cankerworm [9]
– Slayer [10]
– Slayer [10]
– Slayer [10]
– Slayer [10]
– Slayer [10]
Hellslinger Phantom [0(7)]
Necrotech [0(2)]
Necrotech [0(2)]
Necrotech [0(2)]
Swamp Gobber River Raider [1]
Carrion Thralls (max) [10]
Cephalyx Overlords [8]
Mechanithralls (min) [6]
– Brute Thrall (3) [0(6)]

Cryx
[Theme] Scourge of the Broken Coast
[Coven 1] The Witch Coven of Garlghast [+26]
– Barathrum [15]
– Nightwretch [7]
– Nightwretch [7]
– Stalker [8]
– Stalker [8]
Aiakos, Scourge of the Meredius [0(4)]
– Kharybdis [17]
Axiara Wraithblade [0(6)]
Severa Blacktide [0(6)]
Satyxis Blood Witches (min) [8]
– Satyxis Blood Hag [4]
Satyxis Gunslingers [7]
Satyxis Raiders (max) [16]
– Satyxis Raider Sea Witch [4]

The idea is that Asphyxious would do well into most of Retribution and Hordes factions, so I needed something that could deal with the likes of massive infantry spam and powerful battle engines. I hadn’t played Coven in a long time, so decided that maybe it was time to dust them off.
Honestly, I got a lot more difficult matchups than I had hoped for with a “new” pairing and one of our most complicated casters, but such is life.

Round 1

Coven vs Morghoul 2 Exalted
King of the Hill

This should be a playable matchup for me, though I don’t know how to deal with all those models. I actually missed the part where he needs line of sight for his (Blind) feat at first, so my feat is an excellent counter.
I lose the roll and get second turn. There is quite a large obstruction in the middle, some clouds on the left on my side of the table, as well as a forest near his left. I put both my heavies near my right, Raiders in the middle, Gunslingers and Severa on the left and spread out the Coven. I go aggressive after he moves up and feat bottom of 1, catching his whole army. This is good, because it means he can’t counter feat, because of the LoS thing. He can’t really get to anything.
The following turn, I cut a bloody swathe. Severa targets Hakaar with Heartseeker shots and triggers Void Blast, doesn’t do much, but catches a Novitiate and Immortal in the blast. The Novitiate dies, denying Tough to the unit on the left, and the Immortal makes his last ever Tough roll, Hakaar is left on 3 boxes or so. Then the Gunslingers halve the unit, after the Murderous Stalker jumps to the CA and takes out another Immortal in the deal. The Raiders with Red Tide and some help from Curse of Shadows take care of a large part of the unit in the middle, though they don’t succeed at killing either the Novitiate, nor the CA. Blood Witches on the right clear a couple of Immortals, because I need to score. One Raider gets to the SG and Kharybdis wrecks it. I think I score 2 here.

Morghoul then charges Kharybdis, feats and wrecks the jack, then sprints back behind the forest. He has an insanely good turn and kills a lot of my stuff in return, counter scoring in the middle. Vengeance got triggered on all 3 units, didn’t do too much, but it all adds up. Gunslingers continue to do lots of work on the left, but can’t really hurt the Archidon there, while the skirmish on the right continues between the Immortals and Blood Witches.
I honestly don’t remember what I lost my second Stalker to and the Bronzeback in the middle is constantly gummed up by his own models, while I try not to put the Coven in threat.
In the end we both get insanely low on clock, just as he ends the turn where he swings ahead on scenario, his clock ticks to 0, which is actually a bit shitty, because it apparently didn’t make sound, which we didn’t know. I was on 18 seconds at that point, but auto-win if I run the ball to the middle and just tap back, because he clocks while leeching. The rest of the event I used my own clock…

I never did get to kill his Bronzeback and he still had a handful of Immortals left. I had Barathrum, Aiakos, Gunslingers and my caster basically; my left flank was weak because I didn’t deploy a heavy there and the Gunslingers couldn’t deal with the Archidon, so a bit of a lucky win. Not bad for my first game with this list, or the first time I’ve played Coven in general in ages.

Round 2

Coven vs Rasheth Exalted (/Makeda 3)
Spread the Net

I thought a long time about this one, but eventually decided that he was very unlikely to drop Makeda 3, even though it would crush Coven; after all, Rasheth had good game into either of my lists. Not looking forward to my jacks receiving charges from Immortals, or the Supreme Guardian, I decide to drop Coven and see if I can repeat the stunt from last game.
Unfortunately for me, I played very bad this game, which drastically reduced my chances. This time I did put the heavies on opposite sides, but I sadly did the same with the Gunslingers and Severa, whereas Severa can’t do that much by herself, because she can barely leverage her Chain Attack. I also happened to put the Gunslingers opposite the large obstruction in the middle, even though they, unlike Severa, don’t have access to Ghost Shot.
My opponent’s rectangular zone has a large forest, which can keep the Supreme Guardian safe from my ambush.

I lose the roll again and try to go for a similar play, which works at first, but then he starts to kill a lot of things while my output dwindles. Nothing goes as planned and the Satyxis fail to do as much work as last time, even though there are less models on his side. His battle group does a lot of work and Carnivore helps as well.
I tried to use Kharybdis to spray down 3 Immortals, while still being out of threat of the Supreme, but that wasn’t even really worth it, because it just triggered Vengeance. I had put Aiakos on my flag, rather than Severa, which put him in harm’s way, due to arcing Sunder Spirit and my opponent got Kharybdis in the deal for free.

On his feat turn, which is top of 3 I believe, my opponent clears most of my models, crippling 1 arm on Barathrum who is also jammed by Immortals. The latter has Infernal Machine and there is a charge lane to get to Rasheth, so I fully load him and consider going for it, by casting Veil of Mists over the jam and giving Ghost Walk to the jack. I had also ambushed on the side of the SG this turn, because taking out the battle engine was another option. I did the math on the assassination and it was literally impossible; I would do about 10 damage on average.
I also can’t go for the SG, because there’s a Void Archon in the middle of the table, getting dangerously close to my casters. I need to jump through hoops to get through the Immortals to kill that 1 solo and don’t get a lot of work done this turn either.
After that my opponent never even goes for the assassination, as he can easily wipe me out and score on scenario.

I’m honestly a bit distressed that a 10/14 caster, sitting on 1 transfer, can laugh at a heavy to the face, Impervious Flesh or not. Though it must be said that, outside the feat, the odds go up to 45% and if I had gotten to trigger Gang Fighter on top of that, fatso would’ve been 95% dead.
Remember to charge with the crippled fist, as then there is no clear advantage of which attack to transfer.

Round 3

Asphyxious 3 vs Absylonia 2 Primal Terrors (/Lylyth 2)
Anarchy

Seems like the perfect time to bring out Asphyxious to play. I lose the roll, again, and go second. There is a large forest in the middle, a wall on his side, in my right zone and some rubble here and there. He deploys a Hellmouth in each zone, which means they are in Ambush range, but he couldn’t contest, nor score, otherwise, so it’s a risk he’s willing to take. Though the wall on the right makes it so I can’t realistically Ambush into the Hellmouth on that side.
I deploy my jacks spread between the birds, while the Hellslinger and Gobber are on the right, on contest duty. Overlords are on my left, with Cankerworm AD’d on the left and Barathrum on the right.

He runs/Slipstreams as far forward as his wings and/or legs can carry him, which means I can’t go very far without being in threat range. He has three Spell Martyrs, so I don’t want to give him any targets for Alpha Hunter. Carrion Thralls get Cloak of Ash and I move like 5″ out of my deployment zone, keeping all of my easy pickings outside of Slipstream + run range of the arc nodes. Note that his total threat ranges, including Slip Stream, Alpha Hunter and feat is 16″ on most things.
Most of my jacks also stay outside of 14 “, which is his max threat without Alpha Hunter , but I do put a Slayer each within 14 of a Neraph, hoping to bait a feat, because that would take care of his only damage buff. He doesn’t take the bait and instead shuffles forward to just outside 12” of everything. He didn’t put a solo on his flag, which is good news for me and it’s go time.
I ambush on the left, where the Brutes take out the Hellmouth after the Overlords kill the tentacles that are in the way; Overlords score the zone. I run all the Carrion Thralls, with Ashen Veil, in his face, scattering jacks all over, withdrawing from the right, where nothing will ever happen anyway, because the Hellslinger is in the zone and there are no magical weapons, nor will I ever kill the Maw. I feat and keep Asphyxious in my back line, so I don’t die, but everything is comfortable in my control. A Necrotech caps my flag.
It’s worth mentioning the large forest in the middle again, so he needs Slipstream to get/see past it. He then counter-feats and I lose 7 Carrion Thralls and 4 Slayers. The birds were really great here, as he wasted attacks to clear lanes first and then needs to boost the charge attack into a jack, and then boost another attack into the bird to get rid of the -2 to attack rolls. I end the turn on…25 souls!
I drop Ashen Veil from the Carrion Thralls and fully load my remaining jacks. Vociferon goes first and Hex Blasts Bracer off Proteus. Asphyxious then takes a free strike from the Neraph that sprinted in his face after putting Ashen Veil onto himself and casting Mobility. The Neraph rolls high on his free strike and deals 6 damage through focus, after hitting the hard 8. I cast a Calamity in the back of the Neraph, kill it after buying some extra attacks, then Blood Boon another Calamity into Proteus and kill him, I camp 7.
Barathrum walks up to kill the Carnivean, who did not have Spiny Growth up as he needed the attacks on the Slayer. The Mechanithralls, or rather the Brutes, take out his objective. Cankerworm and the remaining birds tag team the Blood Seer and my remaining Slayer walks to take out the second Neraph in my face. I boost a Combo Strike, needing a 7, and…miss, then miss the bought attack twice as well. Well, shit.
The Hellslinger Phantom walks through a tentacle, getting just out of melee range, to kill the Spell Martyr on his flag, no soul, but Swift Hunter to put an Incendiary Shot into the Forsaken, who is holding 4 fury. I leave it on 2 boxes, but on fire. Also not good, but it’ll hopefully burn to a crisp. I put the River Raider in this zone, so the Hellmouth still couldn’t score if he takes out the Wraith. All the Necrotechs are full, so I use 2 to pump out 7 Scrap Thralls and block landing zones around Gaspy and annoy the Neraph. Score went to 4-1 at this point.

So, there’s no end to the emotional roller coaster in this game; Gaspy is on 12 boxes and 7 focus, for the record. Fire on the Forsaken goes out. Uh oh… The Seraph walks up and Slipstreams it into the forest, so it could get close enough to my caster, shoots the Necrotech that is body blocking. The tentacles kill the Hell Caine, but I have the River Raider there to contest still.
Then the Forsaken walks up and…COUNTER CHARGE! Barathrum really saved my behind there, as a Blight Bomb with 7 focus would’ve hurt a lot. This is a lot more than can be said of the Slayer, because he now also misses the free strike on the Neraph walking to Asphyxious… The 2 Scrap Thralls also taking free strikes deal a few boxes. The Neraph boosts the tail attack, so Sustained Attack triggers, and keeps churning those damage rolls, getting me down to three boxes. Golab still needs to activate and gets a Slipstream from Abby who goes to mess up Barathrum. She doesn’t kill, but it hurts. Luckily, Golab can’t land past the Scrap Thralls I put in the way and there is nothing left to clear them, so the big bird goes to take out his anger on Barathrum.
Asphyxious drops everything, because the score goes to 5-1 at this point and I will automatically win at the end of my turns. I walk over a Scrap Thrall in the back of the Neraph, which connects and uses its Death Strike, dealing massive damage and starting a chain reaction with 2 of his buddies. One explodes on Asphyxious and rolls 11 on damage… I decide not to overboost as it leaves me on 1 hp and the game is over anyway. The Slayer finally makes itself useful and kills the Neraph. The thralls eat the Seraph, with some help from Cankerworm. Asphyxious starts buying attacks on Golab, hitting most of his sevens and killing to the box. So in the end, my opponent has his caster and a Hellmouth and I score 7-1.

That was possibly the most fun and excitement I’ve had in a game in a while. No punches were pulled and there were so many ups and downs about my caster living or dying.
The next round is for the following day, as not that many people showed up, so we can spread the 5 rounds comfortable over the 2 days.

Round 4

Coven vs Iona Devourer’s Host (/Krueger 2 BoO)
Recon II

So, I drive back and luckily my opponent is on time, meaning I’ll be able to leave in a timely fashion as well. The problem is that I get stuck between a rock and a hard place; his pair is Iona Devourer’s Host and Krueger 2 Bones. I know he probably won’t drop the latter and I also know that both of my lists have fairly low chances against Iona. I decide to drop Coven and make the most of it. I again lose the roll and get to go second, so feat like I always do: bottom of 1. He pulled a Whitemane from the Well, which walks forward and is within walk and jump distance of an Infernaled Stalker. I remember that the solo has counter charge, so cheekily put a Veil of Mists in front of it. The Stalker walks up behind the cloud, jumps and promptly misses the 6 on 3 dice, causing the bastard to Dodge away. Not much else happens this turn.

I kept everything outside of shoot and walk-and-attack range of his army, so he he can’t do much on his turn. The only thing he can do is walk and jump his Wolf Rider Champion right next to Kharybdis and shoot directly at a Witch, camping 1. He kills the Stalker with the Whitemane and Lord of the Feast, tries to kill the witch, but even with Veteran Leader and 2 rerolls, from Puppet Master and Iona’s feat, that is up, he misses. He feated this turn, even though he wouldn’t be able to use the boost in offense, but it was actually really clever because he doesn’t need the output and the high ARM means my Satyxis are all but useless against 13(15)/18 models with 5 boxes, Tough and Rapid Healing. The Raptor does walk up and pulse 5 raiders.
He still hasn’t given me any viable Ambush targets, but the bird is now within walking distance of Barathrum, who is thoroughly jammed by Ravagers, but Coven couldn’t care less. Raiders Press Forward and one can run away from the jamming Ravager due to blocked line of sight, towards the bird. The rest of the unit doesn’t do anything as I can’t really get through the armor and would only trigger Vengeance. Kharybdis kills the Wolf Rider, so my arc node can run around the obstruction in the middle to get within arc range of the gargantuan.
I move a Witch around, straddling the edge of the killbox and then move the Egregore back for Perfect Conjunction and arc a Curse of Shadows, put Ghost Walk on Barathrum to ignore free strikes, put Veil of Mists over the jamming Ravagers, walk to the bird and leave it on 6 boxes due to a bad damage roll.
So, I have one of the Gunslings walk up and seek out the heart of the gargantuan, putting it out of its misery.

I try to put as many thing as possible in front of my caster(s) who are huddled up around their ball, but are feeling the hot breath of the Tharn closing in. They’re currently camping 0, seeing as I needed to pull shenanigans. My last action was to put a Nightwretch in front, which was a mistake of course. Ravagers plink Kharybdis a bit on the right, but LotF just gets Puppet Master, shoots his bird at the Nightwretch and kills all 3 of my girls dead, by catching 1 in the initial Blood Reaper and then buying attacks on the Egregore. I didn’t play that well, but honestly, I think it was about the best outcome as I didn’t feel like I could get a lot of work done in the first place, with Tharn just eating everything.

I actually wonder if maybe Gaspy would’ve been better after all, as my opponent would have to either waste attacks on the Carrion Thralls, or all the Ravagers need to boost their charge attack, which is still at dice -1 for damage, even on the feat.

Summary

I quite like how both lists played, though I feel like my Coven list lacks a real win condition, as I didn’t really feel on top in either of the 3 games, but it might just be a case of “learn to play”. Feating so early when going second did always feel like the right thing to do, but after that it’s still really important to get a good alpha and manage your resources so you don’t lose more than you need to.
Also, like I said, I’m not sure if Asphyxious 3 against Iona would’ve been so bad as it sounded on paper. I would mostly have to deal with the Raptor and try not to lose too much before I get an alpha. So maybe here I just misjudged the matchup, or maybe not and it was just hopeless after all.
I’m not sure if this pairing covers enough, but I did have a ton of fun playing it, so maybe I’ll take it for another spin next time.