Warmachine Batrep #24: SR Tournament Report - 50 points, two casters (Circle - Morv2 + Krueger2) (with pictures!)

Howdy, everyone! Today I have a tournament report from a local(ish) Steamroller event I attended last Saturday. This was my 3rd tournament since I've gotten back into the game, and would be great practice for the IMC next weekend.

I only own Circle, so that was obviously going to be my faction. However, I've been toying with several different lists and casters. I finally decided on Krueger2 and Morvahna2 as my two casters, since they're two of my three casters I will be taking to IMC next weekend (Cassius being my 3rd). Lists and reports after the jump!
When I got there:

I drove down with my buddy Vince, and when we got there, I was happy to see well over 8 players. We counted 14, though I believe the final count was only 12. Not sure where our counts went awry, lol.

At any rate, I saw there was another Circle player there, three Skorne players, a couple Cryx players, Menoth, a couple Convergence players... um.... not sure what else, haha! Seemed like a pretty good spead though. I won't lie - I was a little nervous. I'm not normally one to get nervous at tournaments, but this would be my first tournament against people I didn't really know well at all, in a building I'd never played in before.

Here are my lists:

I'm not going to take the time to type them up. I think my hand writing is actually pretty legible.

I was initially paired with my buddy Vince, who I play all the time. We asked the TO to swap us, and my friend Sam, sensing an easy round 1 victory for himself, volunteered to play against me.

Game 1: Circle (Krueger2) vs. Sam Hake's Cryx (Goreshade1)

List-dropping debate:

I don't think that Morv2 has much game against Cryx (at least, not MY Morv2 list), and Krueger2 was my intended drop against most Cryx. Sam is one of the top tournament players in our Region, and wanted to try Goreshade1 as a potential drop against Hordes. I was pretty sure he would pick Goreshade1 (his other choice was Denny2), and if he picked Shade1, I honestly felt like my Morv2 list might be a better fit. If he decided to take Denny2 though, I would need Krueger2.

Overall, I felt like K2 would do me best overall, and had a strong-ish counter to both lists.

I dropped Krueger2, and Sam dropped Shade1.

His List:

Goreshade1

-Deathjack
-Nightmare
-Reaper
-Deathripper

Mechanithralls (max)
-Skarlock Commander
Mechanithralls (max)
-Skarlock Commander
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls

Warwitch Siren
Necrotech
Darragh Wrathe

The Mission: Outflank (two 12" zones in the middle. Control one for 1, dominate for 2. First to 5 wins.)

**I won the roll to go first, and took it.

Pre-game thoughts:

Well, I had played against Sam twice before this, and he beat me soundly both times. He's a really good player, and knew the rules way better than I did. Shade1 wasn't a caster I knew anything about. This was a match I'd have much preferred to play later in the day, after I had loosened up with a few less skilled opponents. Game 1 and my tournament life was already very much in question :-/

I essentially just decided I would take one zone and contest the other one. I also planned on using the Druids to reel in one heavy jack at a time, because I didn't read Goreshade's spell card very well. His recursion would be a problem, but I knew that I could kill McThralls pretty quick - it would be a race, of sorts.

Deployment:

Green are forest, blue patches are water, and the brown thing is a hill.

Deathjack has AD! Who knew? (everyone but me) Incidentally, Bloodtrackers picked DJ as their Prey.

Circle Turn 1:

I ran up.

Bloodtrackers spread out in the right zone, and the Druids advanced and popped smoke. I wanted to threaten the zones, but didn't want to let Sam jam me on Turn 1. At this point, I was essentially already committed to the right zone.

Not much else to say!

Nightmare picked Ghetto as his Prey, BTW.

Cryx Turn 1:

Sam started by running DJ to within 3" of the Bloodtrackers to force them into an abomination check. I was fearless near to Krueger, though. Woot.

Everything else ran forward. Goreshade cast Shadowmancer to give his battlegroup stealth. I didn't realize that's what it did, as you will see next turn :)

Darragh Wrathe (DW) put up his "enemy models are -2 POW within 10" of him" aura.

I'm a little bit jammed up. Not too bad though.

Circle Turn 2:

My Druids advanced first, thinking to drag DJ closer so that I could kill him outside of DW's aura. They did not advance far enough, however, and the first attempt failed due to Stealth. Whoops :-/

The rest of them popped their smoke and put up Counter Magic/Elemental Defense.

Bloodtrackers went next. After about 8 throws at DJ himself, I was able to get 10 or 12 damage on DJ, despite only being POW 9 (weapon master). Sam contends that it was 12, I think it was only 10. /shrug

Wold Stalkers (Shrimp henceforth) moved up and killed a few McThralls.

Stalker advanced and put Lightning Strike on Ghetto.

Stones teleported Ghetto exactly 2" away from DJ.

Ghetto, who was outside of the Deathwalker's 5" aura of -2 STR, swung at DJ and killed him in 4 Swings. He then used his lightning strike move to retreat behind the Druids for Sam's inevitable counterattack.

Bloodtrackers shifted their prey to the right-side McThralls.

Killed DJ, woot!

Cryx Turn 2:

Nightmare charged Ghettorix. Sam initially had Nightmare inside of the Druid's bubble of -2 to attack rolls, but once he found out, he moved Nightmare out of it. He had Ghetto as Prey, and as such would normally need 4's to hit. However, he forgot about Prey, and therefore missed his first couple attacks and failed to kill Ghetto. I feel like it was a fair trade - he didn't ask if he could move his model outside of the cloud effect after he had moved inside it, and I let it go. He forgot about Prey though, so I feel karmic justice had been served :)

His left McThralls charged my lone Druid in the circle. They needed an "11" to hit, and the 6th swing finally spiked the 11, and killed him.

Other McThralls, Warwitch Siren and Deathripper killed a bunch of my Bloodtrackers.

Goreshade put up Shadowmancer again.

The McThralls on the left scored a point.

Score: 1-0, advantage Cryx

Huge swing for me, with Nightmare not killing Ghetto. Whew!

Circle Turn 3:

I had a few goals this turn:

1. Kill Nightmare
2. Clear and Dominate the right zone.
3. Make a nuisance of myself with my Stalker in the left zone.

First, I had the Stones teleport Ghetto behind Nightmare.

Ghetto warped for STR and killed Nightmare with his 6th attack. Close call - I believe I missed a couple swings, actually.

Krueger went next, and advanced to B2B with the DJ wreck marker. He shot a few McThralls in the zone, and popped his feat, pushing everything backwards and making it so that Sam's models would be unable to charge next turn.

Bloodtrackers, Shrimp, Blackclad, and Druids all combined to kill off the rest of what was in the zone.

Gorax game the Stalker Primal.

Stalker on the left charged the McThralls, warped for Berserk, and killed about 5 McThralls, though he did miss a lot of his swings, needing 4's to hit. Lol.

I actually missed a ton of swings in this game :)

I dominated the right zone and scored two points.

Score: 2-1, advantage Circle

Cryx Turn 3:

Sam did what he could. He got three newly-grown McThralls on the right to charge Ghetto's rear arc, and did a few points of damage to him, but didn't cripple any spirals.

Reaper took a shot at DEF 19 Krueger, needing a "14" to hit. He got a "12", but it wasn't enough. Whew, that would probably have lost me the game right there.

Other things happened on the right, with more of my poor Bloodtrackers dying.

On the left, the Thralls tried to hurt my Stalker, but mostly missed/failed.

Goreshade walked into the left zone, but didn't do much more than that.

Not sure where the deathwalker went. I think I probably killed her at some point. Heh.

Circle Turn 4:

I needed to keep the pressure up. Sam still had a ton of stuff alive, and that needed to change.

Stalker on the left frenzied and MURDERED a McThrall.

Bloodtrackers killed a bunch of McThralls, and Nuala even did 5 damage to the Ripjaw, who was in the middle of the zone.

Shrimp aimed and killed the remaining McThralls, as well as the Necrosurgeon.

Krueger went and TK'd Ghetto closer to the Reaper. He then made a few attacks and killed the Ripjaw. At least, I think it was Krueger who did that.

Ghetto charged the Reaper and killed it, again taking all of his fury to do so.

Someone at some point killed the Warwitch Siren. Maybe it was a Druid?

Krueger dominated the right zone and scored two points.

Score: 4-1, advantage Circle

I killed a lot of stuff last round!

Cryx Turn 4:

Sam decided that he only had one chance: he needed his Bane Thralls (from the feat) to kill most of my stuff, and jam the zone to the point that I couldn't clear it all in time. You see, I could still easily lose via attrition.

Darragh charged in and tried to kill some Bloodtrackers, but missed.

Goreshade charged Ghetto. Before making attacks, he popped his feat, spawning 6 Bane Thralls.

Random fateful picture here!

I had been mindful of his feat, surprisingly, and had positioned Druids to be near Krueger, keeping the Thralls from charging Krueger, due to the Druids' reach.

Goreshade spent his Focus on destroying Ghetto.

Bane Thralls swung around and killed a few things, but needed high rolls, due to some of them being inside Druids' clouds.

Lots and lots and lots to kill to clear the zone...

Circle Turn 5:

I had 10 minutes left on my clock, and Sam had like 25. The game needed to end this turn, or I was probably screwed.

Inside the zone, I needed to kill or kick out the following models:

• 6x Bane Thralls
• Darragh Wrathe
• Necrotech

Problem was, I didn't know where to start.

I started with Krueger, who charged a Bane Thrall. Before his attack, he cast Lightning Storm on a nearby Bane, boosting to hit, and hit. It's a POW 10 AOE which is always POW 10 (no blast damage). It hit 4 Banes, but only killed one, needing 6's to hit.

Krueger's melee attack killed a Bane, and with his final 3 fury, he boosted a TK at Darragh. The Telekinesis hit, and I shifted DW outside the zone.

Blackclad Wayfarer walked up and targeted Goreshade with his Spray. The spray killed another couple Banes. Down to two left.

Bloodtrackers combined to kill a Bane.

Druids went and killed the final Bane. 

All that was left was the Necrotech. Shrimp used Zephyr, then aimed and killed the Necrotech with the first shot.

I ended my turn and dominated the zone for another two points.

I had about 3 minutes left...

Results: 5-1 Win for Circle Orboros via scenario!!

Post-game thoughts:

Whew! That was an intense game! Sam is a really good player, and put on a lot of pressure!

He said afterward that he felt like he should have won the game because of two things: the Nightmare should have hit Ghetto on 4's instead of 6's, and because of my two spiked damage rolls with Bloodtrackers against DJ. I'm not really sure that's true, especially because Ghetto had another attack left to hit DJ with, and the only two Bloodtrackers who did damage did spike, but I should have done some damage. Maybe not 10-12, but at least 5 or 6. Ghetto would have cleaned it up on average dice either way with his final attack. And, I've already talked about Nightmare and Karma and such :)

I should also point out that even had Ghetto died, my Stalker would almost certainly have killed Nightmare and taken the place of Ghetto, while my Gorax and another Druid would have capably defended/contested the left zone in his stead. Theory-machine really doesn't do anyone favors though. Who really knows what would have happened? :)

So, let's talk about the other stuff that happened. My feat was surprisingly effective against this list, though Sam did fabricate a few opportunities to hurt me. If he had rolled the "14" with his Reaper to harpoon Krueger in, I would have nearly auto-lost. He also managed to get three McThralls into Ghetto's back arc, with a charge bonus. Not what I was expecting, to say the least.

I was happy with my play overall, surprisingly. I used Krueger to good effect, held the feat for a time that warranted it, and was able to clear the zone three different times against a skilled opponent. Sam admitted he made a mistake running his DJ too far forward to force an Abomination check on my Bloodtrackers, but I was happy that I was able to actually take advantage of it.

Druids forgetting about Stealth on the battlegroup wasn't a good thing at all. I need to get better with them. Same with Bloodtrackers - they missed a lot more than I felt they "should" have, but I also put them in awkward situations where they had to do things they shouldn't have had to.

Overall, a very satisfying win against one of the region's top players. All in Game 1 :)

Game 2: Circle vs. Alex's Skorne

The matchup:

Alex had two lists: A Mordikaar list with a bunch of infantry, or a Rasheth list with two units of Gatormen and other assorted awesomeness.

I decided that this was a great opportunity for me to drop my Morv2 list to ensure I wasn't list-locked in Game 4. I wanted her for a few different reasons:

1. If he chose Mordikaar, my Carnivore spell would allow me to RFP his models and take away his recursion.
2. My infantry was *nearly* as good as either of Alex's infantry, but I had the ability to regrow mine.
3. The scenario seemed to favor attrition.

So, I dropped Morv2, and Alex dropped Mordikaar.

His List:

Mordikaar

-Despoiler

-Archidon

-Basilisk Drake

Nihilators (max)

Incindiarii (max)

Tyrant Commander

Pain Givers (forget if max or min)

Tyrant Rhadeim

Void Spirit

Void Spirit

Aptimus Marketh

My List (because I'm a softy and don't want you to have to scroll all the way up to the top to see it):

Morv2

-Warpwolf Stalker

-Warpwolf Stalker

-Gorax

Warpborn Skinwalkers (max)

-Warpborn Alpha

Tharn Ravagers (max)

-Tharn Ravager Chieftain

-Tharn Ravager Shaman

Shifting Stones

-Stone Keeper

Gallows Grove

Gallows Grove

Blackclad Wayfarer

The Mission: Process of Elimination (Two 6" x 12" zones in the center, with an objective in the center of each. Destroy objectives for 1 CP, control a zone for 1 CP, dominate a zone for 2 CP). KILLBOX.

**Alex won the roll to go first, and took it.

Pre-game thoughts:

This would be my first game with the Tharn Ravagers (besides my two Hardcore practice games, which kind of don't count). I knew they'd die pretty easy to the stuff that Alex was taking, but I also knew that I didn't really need their full hard-hitting awesomeness. I decided to have them act like a screen in front of the Nihilators. They would tie up some Nihilators, lots of them would die, and the Skinwalkers would wade in and finish them off.

Incidentally, I decided I would try to hold the left zone, and only try to destroy the objective and contest the right zone, as most of his hard-to-kill stuff was on the right.

I hadn't played Morv2 for a while, and it really showed this game. You've been warned.

Deployment:

His hand is covering some Nihilators.

See, I'm kind of skewed to the left. You can barely see the red objectives in the middle of each zone.

Skorne Turn 1:

Alex ran everything forward. He gave Harrow to the Incindiarii, and for fun he used the Arcane Suppression animus from Despoiler (this turn and every other turn).

Not so quick as I have gotten used to with Skorne, but good positions here nonetheless.

Circle Turn 1:

I ran/charged the Ravagers upward. The Shaman got his assault roll off, and (without rerolls) managed to kill two Nihilators with his shot, then the electroleap.

Morv really wanted (for some reason) to kill a Void Spirit this turn. So, I had a Gallows move up to within range of a Sunder Spirit.

Morv walked up and boosted her Sunder Spirit on the Void Spirit, and killed it. She also put up Fog of War.

Stalkers warped for Prowl and moved forward.

That was essentially it.

Now we see what kind of damage the Ravagers can take...

Skorne Turn 2:

Mordikaar went and regrew two of the Nihilators, who then charged my Ravagers. He managed to kill 4 of them, though I'm not sure if it was Nihilators who did all the damage, or what.

Rhadeim and an Archidon charged my Gallows Grove, and killed it.

Incidiarii lobbed a few shots at Morv, and set Morv, a Stalker, and a Ravager on fire.

He didn't feat this turn, which surprised me.

Circle Turn 2:

I had a lot of options available. I thought of trying for an assassination by popping my feat, regrowing a tree behind Mordikaar, and shooting him with Sunder Spirits, but decided against it. Despoiler's Arcane Suppression made it a little tricky to make that happen. Instead, I decided to go for Attrition.

Morv took some damage from fire, but the Ravager and Stalker fires went out.

Ravagers went, and I managed to dismount Rhadeim, as well as killing an Incindiarii and knocking another one over from Tough.

Gallows Grove shifted to be close to some Nihilators.

Skinwalkers waded into the Nihilators and killed most of them. I think there were 3 remaining.

Morvahna went next and cast Purification to get rid of Harrow on the Incindiarii. She then charged the rightmost objective and managed to kill it and keep two fury camped.

Rightmost Stalker charged the Archidon and killed it with his final attack.

Overall, not a terrible turn, though I should have had Carnivore up by now. I did score a point, though.

Score: 1-0, advantage Circle

What horrors will Mordikaar inflict on me?

Skorne Turn 3:

On the left, the Nihilators charged into the Skinwalkers and Ravagers, but failed to kill any. Mostly it was because they had to walk.

TyCom and his friend also charged in, but some bad rolls ensued, and the Skinwalkers remained intact.

I did get lucky in the sense that one of my Ravagers actually survived (on the far right side of the table), but the others did all die.

His Krea took at boosted shot at Morvahna and hit,boosted damage, and did a TON of damage, and also killed a Stone. Incindiarii also did some damage to Morv, who was glad to have camped two, and shifted them over to the Gorax. She was again set on fire, despite being in the water.

A few Incidiarii were also regrown, though Modikaar again (I think this time he forgot) to pop his feat.

Mordikaar toed the right zone, and dominated it.

Score: 2-1, advantage Skorne

Morv is kind of out of position here...

Circle Turn 3:

Fire did not extinguish on Morvahna, and Alex spiked his damage roll, putting Morv on 3 life remaining. I decided to cut for two, leaving Morv on 1 health.

I would normally want to pop my feat this turn, but Morv was in no state to do that. I would just have to accept that the Ravagers were all going to die.

Morv went first - she walked over to the left and put Carnivore on the Skinwalkers, then used her Cavalry move to get into the forest, as I wasn't able to get into the zone. She was afraid of the fire, and so I camped 5. Heh.

Next, the Skinwalkers went and cleared the zone, killing the TyCom, Flag guy, and several Nihilators. This served to heal Morvahna nicely.

Gorax then went and killed a Nihilator who kept making his tough check. They also easily killed the objective in that zone, and used his final two fury to put Primal on the leftmost Stalker.

My Blackclad shot the Despoiler with Hunter's Mark.

Leftmost Stalker charged the Despoiler. He made it, but not until the Drake got a free strike, taking out his mind and body on yet another gnarly damage roll. Alex had some awful dice this game, but I kind of forgot until now that he did also get some really really good damage rolls.

Still, it set the stage for something awesome.

The Stalker was within Morv's control area, and so when he charged the Despoiler, he only needed a "3" to hit, with the Morv reroll. He hit (was at dice +2 on damage), and did a ton of initial damage. His remaining 4 attacks (rolling only one dice to hit, and one dice for damage) managed to kill the Despoiler. It was only after all of this that I remembered I could have warped for Regeneration and not had to sweat so much. Still, kind of epic.

The Stalker on the right walked into the zone, but not until another gnarly roll from Rhadeim as a freestrike (Alex rolled a 17 for damage, heh), knocking out the Stalker's mind and body. He failed to do anything, as he was outside of Morv's control. However, he did contest the zone, which was what I needed most.

Stones shifted, one of them getting into the zone as well.

I scored two this turn (destroying the left objective, and controlling the left zone).

Score: 3-2, advantage Circle

Mayhem! Me killing the Despoiler was a pretty big deal.

Skorne Turn 4:

Alex did what he could, but couldn't manage to finish off either of my Stalkers, through a combination of bad dice and a lack of stuff left. I think I had a total of like 7 boxes remaining between the two wolves.

He got Marketh into the left zone, and his remaining Nihilator. Mordikaar then remembered to pop his feat, and called it good.

Somehow, even my Ravager stayed alive. Heh.

Score: 3-2, advantage Circle

He didn't score this turn, which is good for me, obviously...

 Circle Turn 4:

I upkept Carnivore.

Skinwalkers used a 2-man CMA to kill Marketh, and a 4-man CMA to kill the Nihilator.

To be a good sport, I took a swing with my gimp Stalker on the right, missed, and was repulsed out of the zone, allowing Mordikaar to dominate the zone and score two, even while Morv advanced and dominated the left zone for two as well, which ended the game at 5-4.

Heh, this was taken before I had my Stalker repulsed from the zone. Seems we both missed the stone at the bottom corner for the contest. Whoops!

Results: Win for Circle via Scenario!!

Post-game thoughts:

Well, I played extremely awkwardly. I'm not sure why I wanted to kill the Void Spirit on the right so bad on my first turn, but I did. I should have put Carnivore on the Skinwalkers instead, so that they could be healing Morvahna so that I could pop my feat next turn if necessary.

Once I finally got back to doing what I should have been doing (hiding Morv behind a wall of Carnivore'd Skinwalkers), the game went much more smoothly. I was content with my how my Stalkers performed, each killing a beast and making it hard as hell for Alex to kill them. DEF 14 is pretty good on a beast when your opponent can't knock them down or reduce their DEF, as it turns out.

Not much more to say about this game. Morvahna2 makes a good late-game anchor, but trying to super-solo without Carnivore supporting her is really a foolish endeavor. Next time I play her, I'll try to be a little more conservative, or something.

Oh yeah. This was the first time I've ever played this mission. Didn't even know it existed until we played it. Somehow, after 50+ games of rolling for missions, I have failed to roll for this one. Weird.

After Game 2 (setting the stage):

There were three players undefeated after Game 2, but the folks at Hobbytown decided to close the store before we could finish a Game 4, so at it happened, Game 3 would be our last game. This would essentially make it possible for there to be two undefeated players at the end of the tournament.

The three undefeated players were myself, James, a PG in Denver with Cryx (pSkarre and eDenny), and Vlad, with Menoth (Harbinger and Feora2). I had had the potential to play anyone in the tournament who was 1-1 as well, since someone would be getting paired down.

I wasn't sure who (if either) of the players I wanted to be paired against. I knew that my Strength of Schedule would be far better if I played one of the other undefeated players, so I knew that I wanted to play them. I also knew that James can play Cryx really well (I've played against him a few times, actually), and that I knew next to nothing about Menoth aside from what I've read.

Game 3: Circle vs. Menoth

Pairings Debate:

Vlad had either Harby or Feora2 he could play, after having won a game with both previously. I was torn - I knew next to nothing about either army, but I knew that Menoth traditionally has a lot of shooting, and that they're also pretty slow. My thought process was that Krueger's feat would really throw a shooty Menoth list off its game, and the feat would really mess with Menoth pretty bad.

Morvahna just seemed like the wrong pick. So, I picked Krueger2, while Vlad picked Harby. He was surprised - he had assumed I would be choosing Morv2. I was just glad (if such an emotion is possible when you have to play against Harby) to be playing Harby and not Feora2, since I actually knew some stuff about Harby.

His List:

Hard to read? I'll type it out :-/

Harbinger

-Avatar
- Devout

Initiate Tristan
-Templar

Exemplar Errants (max)
-UA
Choir (min)
Flamebringers (5 of them - is that max?)

Vassal
Covenant of Menoth
Rhupert Carvolo


My List:

Krueger2

-Ghettorix
-Warpwolf Stalker
-Gorax

Druids of Orboros
-Druid Overseer
Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)
-Nuala
Stoneward and Wold Stalkers
Shifting Stones
-Stone Keeper

Gallows Grove
Blackclad Wayfarer

The Mission: Incursion (three flags in the center of the board - one of the outside ones disappears at the end of Round 1. Dominate outside flag for 2 points, control either flag for 1 point, dominate center flag for 1 point)

**I won the roll to go first, and happily took it.

Pre-game thoughts:

I wasn't sure what to think, honestly. I knew I needed to get as far up the field as possible, and to keep my caster toward the middle so that I could dominate the outside flag as quickly as possible.

My plan was to kill as many of the Errants as possible as quickly as possible, and force Harby to either take a bunch of damage via Martyr, or just force Vlad to lose a bunch of really strong infantry. Ghetto was going to be held in reserve for one of the heavy jacks, preferably the Avatar. I intended on winning via scenario, or via assassination if Vlad made a mistake with Harby.

Deployment:

Errants are really stinking good. You'll see.

The field looks so tiny...

Circle Turn 1:

I ran everything forward. I wanted the Bloodtrackers to be in a good position when Harby popped her feat on Turn 1.

Druids popped smoke and hung out. Stalkers ran forward.

This is when I cast Storm Wall and realized that this list had exactly one unit that could shoot, and those shots weren't even very good. Heh.

My army is fast :)

Menoth Turn 1:

Errants advanced and shot at Bloodtrackers. Most of them were outside of 5" range, but one Bloodtracker still got pasted.

Everything else of his ran forward. Rhupert put "Tough" on the Errants, and Covenant said "no knockdown" within 10".

Harby popped her feat, getting the majority of my army inside her control area.

Good I moved so far up, right?

Circle Turn 2:

I moved lots of stuff laterally. Bloodtrackers shot at the Errants, who were also their Prey. I needed a "4" to hit, and a "6" on 3 dice to force a tough check. I believe I ended up with about 7 in range (after scooting), and Vlad ended up using Martyr only twice, for 4 damage. I hit the rest of the times, and he just rolled Tough like a boss. Not a great start.

Druids found out they couldn't target the Errants with spells, and scooted laterally, popping smoke.

Shrimp moved up and shot at the Flamebringers in a forest, needing 10's to hit. One hit, and killed the nearest Flamebringer.

I decided to just cast Storm Wall again and wait to pop my own feat. Vlad would otherwise just walk up and contest the center objective and Martyr so that I couldn't actually hold the objective anyways.

Time for a turn of pain. Well, my first turn of pain anyways.

Menoth Turn 2:

FIRST, the flag on the left disappeared.

Errants charged in and killed a bunch of my Bloodtrackers. They even killed a few of my Druids.

Avatar and the Templar advanced B2B with each other to threaten my left flank.

Flamebringers also charged in and managed to kill a few of my Shrimp and a Druid, then kind of jammed me up, which was alright with me.

Mostly, my poor Bloodtrackers got murdered. I believe this was the turn that Nuala died.

My next turn would need to be really good.

Sorry, no picture for a while. Must have gotten intense, or the phone messed up, or something.

Circle Turn 3:

I could score this turn! I needed to kill a bunch of guys first though.

I made a huge mistake with my Shrimp. I used Zephyr to get out of the Flamebringers' jam, but forgot that they were engaging my Grove on the right and that my shots would be far more likely to hit the Grove. I easily could have moved the Grove first. So, Shrimp did nothing.

Grove moved into B2B with the flag, controlling it (Flamebringers weren't close enough to contest it).

Bloodtrackers killed a couple Errants, but really failed to do much. Vlad rolled a ton of Tough rolls this game, and the Covenant made it so that they didn't actually get knocked down from it.

Stones teleported Ghetto into B2B with the Avatar.

Gorax put Primal on Ghetto.

Ghetto activated and (needing anything but) to hit, missed his first attack.

His remaining 5 attacks managed to just barely scrap the Avatar. Whew.

I was tired of the Covenant, so Krueger went first and shot at the Covenant three times, putting three damage on it. I then tried to finish it off with my Druids, but was informed that it could never be targeted by Magic. Doh! Another mistake.

Incidental other attacks managed to kill off two Flamebringers, but my rolls were generally poor. Not really going well!

Picture after next turn, I promise!

Score: 1-0, advantage Circle

Menoth Turn 3:

Vlad decided he wanted to kill more of my stuff, including Ghetto.

His Errants continued their ritual slaughter of Bloodtrackers, while the Templar, even boosted by the Choir, failed to kill Ghetto. This was mostly because of Ghetto's high DEF - Vlad rolled a couple 5's, and that was that. It didn't really matter though, because he was set to frenzy in my turn anyways.

The two remaining Flamebringers killed all of my remaining Shrimp save one, and also killed my Gallows Grove.

Things could be better.

Score: 1-0, "advantage" Circle

I'm being overrun! Two Bloodtrackers left, Ghetto about to frenzy then die, Gorax in the fray... not much left here for me, heh.

Circle Turn 4:

I needed to do something this turn. I'd killed about 2 Errants and the Avatar thus far, as well as 3 light cavalry. Not exactly encouraging.

Ghetto frenzied and killed an Errant, who was barely outside of Harby's Martyr range.

Gorax walked up and killed an Errant or two.

Bloodtrackers killed an Errant.

Druids popped smoke to try and be more annoying.

Blackclad shot the unengaged Flamebringer with Hunter's Mark.

Krueger popped his feat to slow the Menoth horde down, but then forgot to do anything else, and camped all 7. He even forgot to move! Wow... what a fail!

Stones bailed him out at least a little bit, and shifted him as far as they could toward the rightmost objective.

Stalker charged the Flamebringer with Hunter's Mark. He put Lightning Strike on himself once he got there, and boosted to hit the Flamebringer. He killed it easily, and used Lightning Strike to get into B2B with the flag and to engage the final Flamebringer.

Really, I killed like 3 or 4 more models. Not enough.

Score: 1-0, advantage Circle

Will Ghetto survive another turn?

Menoth Turn 4:

This turn killed most of my remaining force.

On the left, the Flamebringer killed my remaining Shrimp.

Ghetto got hit twice by the Templar and died. The Templar then made up for lost time and also killed my Gorax.

Two of the Druids died (so, leader and Overseer left), and a Stone also died. Both of the remaining Bloodtrackers also died. Not awesome. My feat was a little too late, or a little too early.

I was down to 7 models, including my caster. I'd killed about 7 models.

Still, I had a plan.

Circle Turn 5:

I needed to gum him up as much as possible. Thing is, I was in a terrible place, attrition-wise. However, I knew that I could still do something.

Here's how I saw it: I would be able to clear the flag and dominate it for two this turn, easily, giving me 3 points. At maximum, Vlad would have two models capable of contesting that flag in my next turn. I could easily kill two Errants, tough or no, with K2 and the Stalker. That meant that Vlad would need to get Harby pretty close to the flag. That meant that I could probably boost a TK at her and turn her to face around 2" closer, then TK my Warpwolf closer to charge her and kill her.

The problem was that if she camped, even the Stalker wouldn't be able to kill her. BUT, if I forced her to Martyr a bunch in my own turn, she would have to choose to either camp or heal herself. If she healed herself, the Warpwolf could charge and kill her easily. If she camped, I'd have to kill her via Martyr. Either resulted in a good chance to kill her, assuming I could put some damage on her this turn by hurting Errants.

Stalker went first, and killed the Flamebringer with his initial attacks.

Krueger walked 6" and shot at the nearest Errant thrice, which forced tough checks and put a few more points on Harby via Martyr. He then TK'd himself into B2B with the flag to dominate it.

My Druids got in the way as best they could, and the Blackclad managed to target something behind the Errants to spray, and caused another couple points to Harby. I think she was down to about 9 or so at this point.

I dominated the flag for 2 CP.

Score: 3-0, advantage Circle

Beleaguered is a vast understatement.

 Menoth Turn 5:

Vlad killed all of my support pieces, and was able to camp all 10 on Harby, making her unkillable via Stalker.

His Errants ran, but only one of them got into range to contest.

Score: 3-0, advantage Circle

Only need to kill one DEF 12 model! Easy, right?

Circle Turn 6:

Krueger went first. He cut for 5, and wailed on the Errant nearest him, forcing Harby to Martyr to 3 life remaining.

Stalker walked up to the Errant and warped for STR. His first swing hit, and Vlad failed his tough check. He then used Sac Pawn to kill the Errant behind him.

Stalker's 2nd initial hit, and Vlad failed tough.

His martyr roll: 6. Martyr causes d3 damage to Harby, who was on 3 health.

So... Harby died, and I did not get the opportunity to score again.

What the board looked like at the end.

I thought this shot would look more epic for some reason.

Results: Win for Circle via semi-unintentional assassination!!

Post-game thoughts:

Well, that was a weird game. I really, really got destroyed. Attrition just ruined me. In hindsight, Morv2 would have been a far better choice. I missed a ton of attacks, and Vlad made a ton of tough rolls, but that doesn't change the fact that I got my ass handed to me really hard on attrition. I had two models left. Luck may play a factor in that, but I made a lot of mistakes to get to that point, and Vlad played very well. All credit where credit is due - I felt like he played a really strong game.

Thing is, I feel like despite my several mistakes, my eyes never really left the target: winning via Scenario. Krueger is a scenario caster, and I was able to ensure that Krueger did what he needed to do. I got the right side of the board cleared, and dominated the flag twice. I probably should have been quicker about it, while I still had more stuff to hold Vlad where he was.

I really do need to learn to play better. I'm happy to have beat three good players, but the fact remains that my play was sometimes sloppy, and often unoptimized. That shit won't fly at the IMC this coming weekend. Really, I need to tighten my play up more, or expect a poor result there.

Outside of my game:

James destroyed his opponent for 5 CP, ensuring that the tournament would end with two undefeated players. I believe that we were tied on Strength of Schedule, so the next tiebreaker went to command points.

Immediately, I cursed the fact that I didn't get the extra 2 CP for dominating the flag in my last game. I had a total of 13 out of a possible 15 CP, but I also knew that James had crushed all of his opponents. He even told me that even if I had gotten 5 in my final game, I'd still have lost. (apparently he didn't read my score sheet correctly)

In the end, he had 11 CP and I had 13, which gave me the win, just barely. No clue how I'd have done on the next tiebreaker - probably not as well.

As such, I earned the following:

Pretty neat for a guy who has only been back playing this game for 4 or 5 months :)

James ended up with 2nd (obviously), and Vlad got 3rd. We all got coins.

Hobbytown charged us $10 entry fees, and didn't give us any prize support. So, even though the coins cost about $40 after shipping (or so I'm told), Hobbytown made $80 off of us. First time that's ever happened to me at any event. Don't get me wrong - I would prefer a coin if I had to pick, but I've just never seen the lack of any prize support. I didn't even get 4 games in.

Is this a pretty standard thing in the Warmachine tournament scene?

At any rate, I did enjoy myself, and the event was well run. Overall, it warranted my hour-long drive to get there, though my attitude may have been different if I hadn't won something.

I was happy to get home at a time when my son was still awake. Perrin was excited to see me :)

You mean you won a Warmachine Tournament already, Dad?

Thanks for reading this whole thing! Let me know what you think! What mistakes did I make? How could I have played better? I will not respond to impolite criticism, however. Of myself OR my opponents.

Hope there aren't TOO many typos - I'm going to just leave it as is.

For future tournament updates, follow @xaereth on Twitter! I'll be updating my IMC games this coming week. Hopefully I do alright, but I'll try to be faithful and update as best I can :)