A Coven of Witches

So after getting a drubbing while using Scaves the other day, and it was all my own fault, i decided to test out some of the other casters so i don't sit in the same routine every game and expect to win. So i dusted off the first ever Cryx caster I played, all those years ago in MKI The Witch coven....
I had run them against Pauls Circle on Friday night, and managed to drag Baldur down after finally getting rid of his damned Warpwolf, which for some reason lasted 3 turns in combat with Erebus, a Stalker and Satyxis Captain, who all reduced him to 1 HP in the first round of combat and only just managed to keep up with his regen after that (including the turn after the stalker first hit and prevented any Regen!

A couple of tweaks to the list and it was ready to be taken against the retribution and Rahn fielded by James, so i rolled:

The Witch Coven
2 Stalkers
2 Nightwretches
Full Mech Thralls
Necro Surgeon
Min Bile Thralls
Full Satyxis Raiders with Sea Witch
Raider Captain

Rahn had brought

Rahn
Chimera
Arcanist (big mittens)
2 units of battle mages (mini mittens)
Full MHSF w/ Captain
Narn
Nayl
Full Halbediers w/ Command.

Jay won the roll off and let me go first, our scenario was Supply and demand, so i placed the mech thralls, biles and surgeon facing Jays flag, along with a nightwretch and both stalkers, with the witches closer to my flag with another wretch, the Satyxis and captain used the advance deployment to get forward on the left flank (after Jays normal units had deployed)
Jay put his halbediers in the centre flanked by each unit of mini mittens, Rahn and the Arcanist behind, the MHSF came on my right flank facing down my mech thralls (obviously looking to deal with 3 of my 4 jacks) With Narn right out facing the Satyxis, and Nayl in the centre.
Turn one saw me take advantage of the Witches being able to act independently and infernal machining both Stalkers with one moving forward then acting another witch to get the speed boost on the other one, I then left it there for the rest of the game (which does me favours later).

The Elves moved to engage the closest NightWretch on turn one, dealing a reasonable amount of damage but leaving the arc node and cortex in tact. Narn moved back towards the centre leaving the satyxis stranded staring at empty board space, and the halberds formed a line to cover the arcanist Rahn and one unit of mages, the second unit moved out to target the stalkers but were outside of range due to stealth.

Turn two saw the  stalkers engage the mage hunters and battle mages resulting in only the death of 2 hunters and one mage, not quite the strike i was hoping for, the night wretch moved forwards to bring its ac node in range and spent focus to give its gun a 3" AOE and targeted the Chimera hiding in amongst the mage hunters and Nayl i did forget that they were immune to blast damage due to some kind of retribution trickery, but Nayl got badly hurt so i called it a win. I then dropped a boosted Stygian abyss through the node onto the chimera getting a critcal and stopping any sneaky Rahn arc node tricks next turn, so i used the last bit of focus to blast nayl into oblivion while he was nicely clear of my witches. The mech thralls then ran up to block in the mage hunters and halberds, meaning less of them were able to counter the Satyxis that charged into the other end of the line, only a couple hit combat but it was enough to crack a couple of holes and lock many of them in place, and a couple of mini mittens too!

Turn two saw Rahn go feat happy and the retribution came out swinging, one of the stalkers went down, the other was badly hurt and moved about by the mini mittens, the damaged nightwretch was scrapped, every single mech thrall slain, and all of the bile thralls and the necro surgeon, all of this just after Jay was grumbling about my units being too good!

Turn three and with just one stalker, the satyxis a night wretch and the witches left standing it wasn't looking good, fortunately i had left infernal machine on the Stalker and it was able to slam Rahn to the ground in front of the Satyxis, who with the benefit of Ghost walk, and Curse of Shadows on the halberds were able to walk up to the stricken elf and use the sea witches mini feat, sufficed to say Rahn was not a healthy elf and the nightmare isles claimed another victory!

Things we learned:
Satyxis rule: they are just a brilliant unit and can apply a lot of pressure very early and keep my opponent reacting or trying to predict where they will go next!
Stalkers are very good with infernal machine, SPD and MAT 9 makes for an excellent assasin with a mighty 12.5" threat range for grievous wounds POW 12 attacks, and working in a pair they can kick out serious damage!

Well more revelations this Friday! see you soon