ESorscha v Cryx (Denegrha3)

Forward Kommander Sorscha
Sylys Wyshnalyarr, The Seeker
Spriggan
Winter Guard Infantry, Officer & Standard, 3 Rocketeers
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich
Kayazy Assassins, Underboss
Kayazy Eliminators
Widowmakers
Widowmaker Marksman
Yuri The Axe
Manhunter
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
Lady Ayana and Master Holt

Denegrha, the Soul Weaver
Malice
Ripjaw
Scavenger
Defiler
Warwitch Siren
Soul Trapper
Bloat Thrall
Bane Riders
Mechanithralls, Skarlcok Commander
Necrosurgeon & Stich Thralls
Necrosurgeon & Stich Thralls
The Withershadow Combine

Setup. I lost the roll (surprise, surprise!). The scenario is really spread out, and with little scenery in the way, I spread out across the board. I hoped that the Winterguard could take care of the mechanicithralls with sprays, and wanted to try to time a charge with the Kayazy (abandoning my "keep them in reserve" strategy from the previous game. 

In the first turn, I used Sorscha to get the Winterguard flying up the board with a run. I was worried about a charge from the Riders, so I kept he Kayazy back, but also put Iron Flesh on them. Not a great move - obviously the Winterguard were going to need some help, and I kind of hung them out to dry. I thought I'd kept the right flank pretty safe, but I made one really big mistake. Again, I've missed a couple of photos here. Spriggan is out in the open. Malice harpooned him, dragged him in, and smashed him to bits with a bit of help from the Riders. Worse, Maelovus of the Withershadow Combine used Dark Industries - this means that he can create a non-character jack of his choice. So, not only did I lose my only warjack at the top of 2, I'd also gifted Cryx an extra one. 

At this point, if I'm honest, I wasn't having much fun. Things looked pretty hopeless. Inexperience has me giving up reasonably quickly, looking at problems rather than solutions. Anyway, a few deep breaths, and back to it.

And then I see what the Winterguard can do. With a bit of help from Yuri and the snipers, I cleared out the zone, and ground the objective down to 4 points. I was not far away from gaining two objective points, which I hoped would give him something to think about and maybe change focus away from the Kayazy. In retrospect, I probably should have ignored the objective and tried to snipe out the last of the Mechanithralls. As it stood, there was one left, which meant 6 more were coming courtesy of the Necrosurgeons next turn. On the right Flank, Sorscha jumped up and Freezing Gripped the Riders, in an attempt to buy me some time there.

Here, I really felt like I had a chance. Malice had moved up into the Zone. I felt that I could move Sorscha up and wipe out Malice under feat, then freezing grip the riders for another turn. As it stood, I rolled very poorly, and it took all of Sorscha's focus to clean out Malice. The Riders were now in a position to do some serious damage to the Kayazy, and I was close to losing the left flank.

At this point, time was running tight, so we called the game. I felt like I'd come closer than it had felt after the top of 2. Had Sorscha done more work, I might have had an outside chance of crawling back into this one.

Half way through, I really wasn't enjoying this one, but I got my head back into it, and was reasonably happy with some of my decisions. I'm still constantly doing silly things that put me on the back foot, but hopefully every game is drumming something useful into me for the future.