Warhammer Underworlds casual gamenight: Something fishy is going on!

 Okay, so I caved in.  After trying to get myself to play with other warbands, now that the tournament approach I never the less felt the urge to have my little Spinefin back.

And the Crimson Court deck just didn't rock my boat.  Either you drew nothing and where hopelessly smacked, or you drew well and the game was more boring for you then for the opponent even... see the previous games.

So it happened the 20th of september.  I decided to bring Elathain back into the game, this time though taking along the Hungering Parasite instead of the Force of Frost deck.  That also means I have about a month and a maximum of 10 games to fine tune the deck to the sort of steamrolling "WTF is that" deck I love to play.  And Spinefish gives a good option to ping the adjacent damage to with the Parasyted warrior when no enemies are present, due to his constant repositioning.

And considering the other warband I wanted to try out is Cyreni with Force of Frost, as I finally want to try and get this warband to work to my likings, it was basically a night out for the Idoneth Deepkin.  That and the fact with only 1.5 month to go, I still can't decide what I want to play, while others are already finetuning their decks.  It will be one of the Idoneth in any case, as I'm keeping The Dread Pageant for Ekeren, but which one, I have no clue.  Let's see how tonight goes for starters...

 

 

The first game put my Cyreni's Razors against Zondara' Gravebreakers with Hungering Parasyte.   

Both warbands deployed and we where ready for the battle between the ladies.  

Cyreni duly opened with a Hammertide, pinging Cracktomb as a result, but also get that stagger token in play for objectives later on.  

The Gravebreakers started doing what they do best, namely digging up upgrades.  I tried to hold back as long as possible to deny them any possible kill glory to stall their inspiration as such.

 

 Alathyrr charged forward, taking down Pikk and as such hoped the opponent would spend more time for raising this zombie again instead of going on the offensive with the Parasyte.

 

 

 Which he duly did, and the first round ended at a 5-3 lead for the Razors.

 

 In the second turn Toyle came forward, attacking Cephanyr, only to have the squid stagger him and poofing away to safer areas, as Cyreni has infiltrated the opponents territory.

 

 

Cephanyr came back on his steps though, charging and taking out the zombie in one fell swoop of it's tentacles.

As Cyreni unleashed Absaloth's Avelanche, taking a point of damage in the process, all the opponents warriors where hit as well as they kept being bunched together at the back of their territory.

 

 

Ferlain charged Cyreni, but luckily for the Idoneth Tidecaster he missed his attacks.

 

 

Renglaith, having Grievous now that he was inspired, stepped in to protect his leader,  finishing off the werewolf in a swift strike from his Lamari blade.

Alathyrr on the other hand charged forward to Pikk and Cracktomb, and scythed her way through them, taking down Pikk.

Things looked good for the Idoneth, and a 9-5 lead was on the scoreboard.  Not the widest of margins, but seeing how the opponents band had been brought down in numbers I was confident I could hold on to this in the final turn.

That turn however began with Alathyrr being taken down by the undead unfortunatly.

As Cephanyr had charged Zondara, she was forced out of her hiding place and came forward to engage Cyreni in a battle of mystical powers.

But the Tidecaster proved to be the better of the Necromancer, and a Pelagic Blast ended the old crone's reign of fear.

With some more cards to be scored at the end, the Razors netted a 14-6 victory as a result.

So that went rather well, and to be honest I'm only going to switch one objective card out, Rising Threat will be replaced by Snuff Out, which I think might be easier to score with all the 2 damage and 1 ping Hammertide attacks to be honest.

But then the main menu for the night, the return of my beloved Elathain.  Facing him are Skittershank's Clawpack and another Hungering Parasyte, so the little beasties will run abundant in this battle.

I decided to longboard, counting on the Flood Tide mechanic of the warband to be able to cover the needed distance, as my Parasyte latched on to Elathain.  

But Peter played Poisoned Attacks, and this card was a pain as he rolled all the needed hammers.

Fuirann as such was the first to fall to the attacks of the ratmen before she had the chance to do her heroic shennanigans.

The Soulraid began their game of infiltrating the opponents territory, as Tammael began his career of idiot of the evening.  Charging towards Snyp Padpaw, he managed to miss with all his three dice.  The Curse Hungers allowed me to attack again, and miss again (and then to know I had re-rolls on the first dice for stagger due to the Parasyte, but forgot).  

Elathain scored for being a leader in friendly territory, but the Skaven had taken a 3-6 lead now.

 

In the second turn, Elathain was besieged on all sides by the Skaven, and even though he managed to heal himself, he was still taken down by a flurry of attacks.  tammael had in the meantime missed Snyp again with 2 dice on hammers and re-rolls... before the rat simply walked off.

Finally Tammael took down Snyd, but only after re-rolls, meaning he had spend 14 (!!!!!!) attack dice before finally hitting.  Had he just taken him out immediatly, things might have been different but now all went downhill.

Especially as he himself was then taken out as a result on the first attack, to add injury to irony...

With only Duinclaw and Spinefin remaining, I had to struggle through the hopeless third round with a 7-13 deficit, and in the knowledge he had a lot of easy to score cards still having to come as we played both the Parasyte.

Duinclaw tried valiantly, but failed to take out Kreep Kinwhisper, and was in return taken out by the net throwing rat.  As a result, a crushing 8-20 deafeat was my part...

Does this mean I need to bring Elathain back to the drawing board?  No, not necessarily, as this game was hampered by Tammael's amateuristic combat skills.  But it does mean I won't be taking this combination to Benelux Clash II though, it needs far more finetuning and practice then I'll be able to run in a month of time, especially combined with the Dread Pageant that I want to keep using until Ekeren as well.

So, with about a month to go, that means there are still two candidates for the tournament: either the frustrating Crimson Court with Path of Prophecy, or Cyreni's Razors with Force of Frost.  Let's see if I can get a game or two in with both those bands before making the final decision and then spend the final games before the tournament to finetune the piloting with the picked warband...

Choices, choices, choices...