And boom goes the dynamite

Captain Gunbjorn assembled his forces as he looked at the much larger horde of Cryxian thralls rushing toward them. He had his doubts about the effectiveness of the more traditional Kriel Warriors, but they had been all that Madrak could spare for him for this particular raid. He had plenty of powerful warbeasts, though, and with their combined firepower he looked forward to showing the Cryxians the true mettle of the Trolls.

His men formed up and his trolls began firing into the swarm of steam-fisted thralls surging at him, as well as the large helljack tearing forward with animal-like ferocity. He hit it with a rocket, and through his guiding influence his own beasts finished it and tore through many of the thralls. As many as he killed, though, more just charged forward to replace them.

The thralls hit his lines like an undead freight train, killing his kriel warriors and pounding his Blitzer, while an insidious worm-like machine eviscerated a couple more warriors. Bonejacks with vile corrosive sprays and explosive projectiles hit his left flank, even as he saw their leader, a glowing, iron monstrosity as big as he was with a massive cleft spear. The iron lich summoned green balefire to burn his men, and Gunbjorn knew how he would have to finish this.

While his Blitzer alternately pounded and shot the thralls that were assailing it, he moved up and cycled the next rocket into the chamber, firing it at the lich. The monster was quicker then it looked, however, and his rocket midded it completely to explode uselessly on the ground nearby. Cursing softly, Gunbjorn, raised a wall of stone from the earth to help defend him if this thing decided to charge at him. Then he called on his training with the Cygnaran army to hold his troops together, giving them cover from the deadly magics and bonejacks, if only for a moment. His remaining warriors finished off the last of the thralls on the one flank, while his Bomber killed the last ones on the other.

The next few minutes were a frenzied blur of activity, as bonejacks spewed venom and explosive projectiles, and the worm machine tried to attack him with a deadly looking bite (and missing), and his counterattack proved absolutely devastating. When the smoke cleared the three arc noded bonejacks were scrap piles, the thralls were dead, and only the iron lich, the worm, and a rune-covered thralls were left.

Gunbjorn saw the thrall move up and throw green hellfire at him, but he ducked out of the way. The lich moved onto a hill and Gunbjorn could feel the very earth withering around him and it drew in power. More hellfire came, this time finding its mark and burning him. With the last of his strength he sent it to his Impaler, but he knew he couldn't last much longer. In a blur the worm jack scurried around his Blitzer and bit right into his side, cutting through his protective armor like it was so much paper. He staggered and turned to face it, but it swung its tail around one last time, hitting him on the head.Gunbjorn's consciousness swam and he fell backwards.

He awoke later to see that his enemy had disappeared. Scorched and mangled corpses lay strewn across the battlefield, most of them the undead, but many of his own warriors as well. His beasts had run when he fell, but he could still sense them, and called them to return to him. He wondered at what had just happened, and why the Cryxian had left him alive, but then looked up and realized that the day was much later than he had thought. By the time he re-assembled his forces the defenders of the village he was going to raid would have had time to dig in, and would have heard the sounds of battle to warn them of his proximity. He would have to try again another time, and with more troops. Someday he would see that lich blown to pieces at the other end of his cannon.

Wow, what a fun game. I got to play some Warmachine yesterday with Micah, who was back in Elsinore from Ol' New York, and the second game was spectacular. He didn't have any models, so I let him use my Cryx, and I ran some trolls, and man was it fun. The first game was eDoomshaper, and while I won it was short and frankly not as awesome (though there was a particularly rad dire troll mauler trample where he got an entire unit of McThralls). It was the second game, where I had Gunbjorn, that was way more fun.

My list:

Gunbjorn

Blitzer

Bomber

Slag Troll

Impaler

Kriel Warriors (10)

- UA

Stone Scribe Chronicler

His list:

pAsphyxious

Seether

Defiler

Nightwretch

Nightwretch

Cankerwurm

Mechanithralls (10)

Mechanithralls (10)

Bloat Thrall

In summary: Gunbjorn is an absolute blast to play. Shooting rockets, bombs, and machine guns with high accuracy at everything in sight is just mad sexy. I made that other list for Micah in about a minute, and I'm kind of amazed by it. It's tier 1 Asphyxious, which means those mechanithralls are all AD. I'm gonna have to give it more test time, but I think this simple build is a really strong 35 point list.

I had a great time in Lake Elsinore this weekend, though I'm still a little upset I didn't know about the tournament in Riverside until it was too late. Maybe if Shane SAID something to me I could have planned ahead for it...jerk. :-P