Clash for Colorado, part 1 of 2!

Since this is my first post here, I believe an introduction is in order! My name is Jason and like Xaereth mentioned before, I play both 40k and hordes! I have played many other games including inquisitor, fantasy, BFG, etc. But my main focus is on 40k and hordes.

Alright, on to the juicy stuff! This last weekend was the biannual Clash for Colorado. For those that don't know, this is
 a warmachine event held twice a year at the location of the store who won in the previous clash. Last time a player from a store in the springs, Game Castle, won the event. As such, Fort Collins brought 5 of its players down to the springs to compete and hope to bring the clash trophy back up to the fort! The 5 included myself(Legion of Everblight), Tim(Trolls), Stewart(Menoth), Mike(Cygnar), and Jeremy(Khador). This was Mike, Stewart, and mine's first warmachine tourny ever, as we have only been playing since November-ish.

The tournament uses the steamroller rules. Therefor we make two separate lists and show them both to our opponent, size up which one we believe they will be using, and then choose from our two lists which we will be using. This allows a slight bit of strategy in scaring your enemy into picking a certain list, while also allows some deviation from the typical "rock-paper-scissors" effect of gaming. If two distinct lists are created, one can avoid being playing a losing battle due to list choice. Since I only had one list available, and didn't realize we even needed two lists, we all decided to make decoy lists. These lists contained casters and models that are typically seen as the "meta" lists to have my enemy almost positive I would be using the fake list rather than my own. I created a p-Lylyth list saturated with ranged units as my decoy list. This worked pretty well, considering the caster I intended to use was Vayl, a rare choice in the tournament scene.

My actual list was as follows:

Vayl: -6 beast points

3x shredders: +6

Carnivean: +11

Angelius: +9

Raek: +4

5x Warmongers: +8

War Chief solo: +3

6x Striders: +6

Deathstalker solo: +2

2x Shepherds: +2

Sorceress: +4

Feralgeist: +1

Total: 50 points

Game 1

Vs. Cryx

Overview:

I had yet to play a game against Cryx in MK II, so I felt extremely confused about what I was fighting. I definitely did not know my enemy. His two lists contained Deneghra(a huge debuffer) or Mortenebra. My ploy list wokred here, he had figured I was going to use my ranged list and he chose Deneghra in hopes or reducing the RAT of all my range all game. His list had a lot of big hitters. It had a nightmare, a few gun bunny arc nodes, tartarus, a withershadow combine, 2 siren solos, some bile thralls, and some bane thralls.

Match:

The scenario chosen was process of elimination. Basically there were two scoring zones next to each other in the middle of the board. First to 2 points wins. The catch is, each zone can only generate a point from a zone once. Therefor a player must score in each zone once, not twice in a single zone. I won the dice roll and chose to go second. Since scoring doesn't start until the end of the second players second turn, going second allows me the final reaction before scoring. First turn he just advanced everything. nothing special. My first turn, I did the exact same, only didn't run the full distance, just enough to stay out of his charge range. My sorceress advanced towards his bill thralls, staying behind a building and casted wind ravager, making no enemy ranged attacks possible with 8" of her. Turn 2, he ran one of his arc nodes forward right in front of my mongers, but staying out of melee. Through him Deneghra casted crippling grap on them(-2 to every important stat) and scourge against my sorceress, knocking her down but doing no dmg. he moved everything else into both scoring objectives, requiring me to advance or I would lose. His combines moved up and nuked my deathstalker. My turn, and oh I did more than just advance. On my right flank, he had sent a siren really far forward, in prefect range of my Raek's 14" threat range. So he advanced, leaped and killer her before she can get her crazy 4 dice damage rolls out. my mongers charged his gun bunny, not killing it but getting inside the objective zone. my carnivean charged and used his assault spray killing 2 of the bane thralls, but not getting into combat. my angelius moved up and took a shot at another bane thrall, thanks to eyeless sight since they are stealthed, exploding one of them. my shredders moved forward just throwing some tenacities on my bigger beasts. striders moved up and made a CRA on a different bunny, doing just enough dmg to kill the arc node. sorceress stayed put since she was knocked down and just casted wind ravager again. Vayl moved forward, buffed a few units, turned my carnivean into an arc node with her occulus, and threw a hoarfrost at tartarus. No crit, and only like 3 dmg. My trun was finished and both objectives were contested, no points awarded. His next turn, he activated his caster first, and feated. The withering causes all enemy models within her control area to be -2 to every stat, and cannot charge or run. This stacks with the crippling graps that he upkept for free with the combines against my mongers, leaving them with a 1" spd. Despite his feat, this turn was very short for him, his remaining bane thralls along with tartarus charged my carnivean, not killing my arm 21 heavy beast. he had to advance his bile thralls forward because of wind ravager, hoping to stay at least 2" away from my mongers reach. He mis-measured and was in combat with them and therefor couldn't shoot and they had no melee weapon. His nightmare then charged my striders, make quick work of two of them. His other gun bunny moved and killed one of my shepherds. he casted scourge on my angelius this time, but missed and scattered way off. My turn, mongers make quick work of the bile thralls with their beserking. Carvinean killed tartarus and all the bane thralls, Raek frenzied, but just charged the combines. angelius advanced and shot deneghra, doing 6 dmg and catching her on fire. the remaining striders moved into base with the nightmare as well as his last siren, tieing her up. shredders ran in and killed the remaining bile thralls and his last gun bunny. vayl advanced, popper her feat, which allows me to move one of my non warlock models for every model within 16" of her. So I shoved every model I had left forward down his throat, tieing up every model he had in combat except his caster. Still no scoring. His final turn, he freed up his arcnode less bunny from combat, charged is at vayl. Vayl's Dark sentinel then popped, allowing my angelius a free move and boosted atk and damage roll, easily killing it. he then took the risk of moving his caster forward and going for the caster kill. He cast scourge, hoping to knock her down. she only has 13 armor, so any hit is huge against her. Little did he know she was sitting on 18 def with tenacity. He missed on three dice, just needed a 10, and rolled a 6. his caster was left in the open. He advanced his nightmare forward killing a lot of my mongers. after his failed assassination attempt, he just conceded. Deneghra was in sight of my free carnivean and angelius. Game 1 - victory!

At this point Mike, Stewart, and Jeremy had all lost their 1st match, so all that remained was Tim and I representing the fort!

Game 2

Vs. khador

Overview:

Unlike with cryx, I knew khador like the back of my hand. He chose Epic vlad as his caster, also assuming I was going to use lylyth. He had lots of cavalry, some widowmakers, kayazy assasins, drago, and a spriggin. Basically a heavily armored and very fast list.

Match:

The scenario was the a gauntlet. Another 2 objective game, only this time they were vertical of each other, and each zone was owned by player whose deployment zone was nearer. The only way to score was in the enemies zone. This game was semi-quick. He ran all his army forward basically right in my face 1st turn. I responded with shear force. My deathstalker advanced, killing 2 of the widowmakers with her snap fire. My line moved forward. Vayl turned the carnivean into a node again, and threw a hoarfrost forward. This time doing major damage, killing 2 heavy cavalry. The carnivean assaulted forward and killed an assasin. The angelius killed even cav model! Was a good turn! His turn 2 was devastating though. He popped his feat, which gives d3+3 models +3 to every stat! He chose all his remaining cav models, and both cav solos. His cav unit attachment/solo charged my striders with its combustion lance, causing an AOE after he killed the first and killed the entire squad. his remaining cav charged my mongers killing 2. the widowmakers missed my stalker. but his widowmaker solo did not! she died. His other beefy solo along with the man hunter he had charged my carnivean, leaving him with 1 life! His spriggin charged my angelius killing her easily. My turn 2, raek moved forward, killing the pesky widowmaker solo. My mongers couldn't kill any of hit armor 19+ cav under his feat. Vayl then activated casting incite(2+ atk and dmg rolls within 9" of her) as well as feating. The carivean was healed with a shepherd and killed the manhunter and cav solo easily under incite. Shredders charged the remaining colo, not doing any damage due to his feat, but tieing him up! my war chief ran towards the kayazy. My feat movements then caused me to move everything down his throat! war chief got into the kayazy, causing them to fail their terror check at a cmd of 10! nearly impossible! Raek tied up his drago, who was about to charge my carnivean! a noble sacrifice! His next turn, he killed the raek with the widowmakers, freeing up his drago...almost! my feralgeist was in range so he hosted the dead raek, causing him to still be in combat with drago! drago was forced to use his action to kill the undead raek! he failed his regroup with the assassins! i was shocked! he ran 0". My turn, vayl activated buffing the carnivean with tenacity and spiny growth, and finishing her turn slinging a hoarfrost at Vlad...critting him making him stationary! That was my chance....I charged the carnivean at vlad, taking free strikes from 4 assassins...which freaking hurt! but he lived, and ate Vlad with one bite since he auto hits due to being stationary. Game 2 - victory!

Tim also won his 2nd game. He nearly lost it due to a very...for lack of a better word, rule bender of an opponent. But he pulled it out! 2 ft collins players remain!

Part 2 coming soon!