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| NOT my picture - I stole it shamelessly from Facebook. Pretty awesome kid! |
Let's say that again.
It's a 1-day event. That means 6 total games of Warmachine without a single break, even for dinner. You play 6 games straight.
This was my first Masters event, and I brought Circle (my only army). Lists and such after the break.
My Lists:
List 1:
Krueger2
-Ghettorix
-Warpwolf Stalker
-Gorax
Stoneward and Wold Stalkers
Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)
-Nuala (UA)
Druids of Orboros
-Druid Overseer (UA)
Shifting Stones
-Stone Keeper (UA)
Gallows Grove
Blackclad Wayfarer
List 2:
Morvahna2
-Warpwolf Stalker
-Warpwolf Stalker
-Gorax
Warpborn Skinwalkers (max)
-Warpborn Alpha (UA)
Tharn Ravagers (max)
-Tharn Ravager Chieftain (UA)
-Tharn Ravager Shaman (WA)
Shifting Stones
-Stone Keeper (UA)
Gallows Grove
Gallows Grove
Blackclad Wayfarer
List 3:
Cassius & Wurmwood
-Megalith
-Warpwolf Stalker
-Gorax
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (max)
Tharn Ravagers (max)
-Tharn Ravager Chieftain (UA)
Swamp Gobbers
Shifting Stones
-Stone Keeper (UA)
Shifting Stones
Gallows Grove
Gallows Grove
Blackclad Wayfarer
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| I used every single space on this thing. Exactly what I needed. |
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| Pretty happy to have three fully painted lists :) |
About the event:
It was "Divide and Conquer", which meant that I would need to use each of my lists at least once. This meant that someone could potentially use one list four times in a row, but then be locked into his final two lists at the end of the tournament.
We each had one hour on the "death clock" - if we ran out of time, we lost.
When we got there:
I was pretty excited to play some games, but I had no real expectations. I've been playing for around 4 or 5 months, and though I had some great results in 40k, I was pretty out of my depth at an event like this. My goal was to go 4-2 for the day, though a guy I rode up with (Sam) told me that 4-2 was a little too ambitious, and that I should shoot for 3-3. I'm not really capable of aiming for a .500 record, even if that's the most realistic, so I kept my goal at 4-2, and secretly planned on trying to win the whole thing (haha).
When we registered, we got a widget:
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| I put mine away immediately so that someone else didn't steal it, haha |
Game 1: Circle vs. Rick Freeman's Skorne
His Lists:
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| Never played against Makeda1... |
Pairing Debate:
Well, I'd never played against Makeda1, OR the Fist of Halaak tier list that Xerxis runs. My thought was this, though: Morv2 is certainly a good caster, but some matchups she's awful in, and therefore I wanted to drop her (and Cassius) as early as possible. I felt like she would be just fine against Makeda1 and Mordikaar, and I felt like math-wise, she'd be alright against the Fist of Halaak. I had no idea what Rick would want to drop against me, but I did feel like if he dropped the Mordikaar list, I'd have an advantage, and the others I'd at least have a reasonable chance. If he did drop the Fist, I'd at least be able to use Purification to get rid of his upkeeps.
So, I dropped Morv2, and Rick dropped his Fist of Halaak, which is a rock-hard competitive army I've never played against. Yikes.
His List:
Xerxis1 (Fist of Halaak Tier 4)
-Molik Karn
-Gladiator
4x Incindiarii
4x Incindiarii
4x Arcurii
4x Arcurii
6x Cetrati
Tyrant Commander (TyCom)
Paingivers (max)
My List:
Morvahna2
-Warpwolf Stalker
-Warpwolf Stalker
-Gorax
Warpborn Skinwalkers (max)
-Warpborn Alpha (UA)
Tharn Ravagers (max)
-Tharn Ravager Chieftain (UA)
-Tharn Ravager Shaman (WA)
Shifting Stones
-Stone Keeper (UA)
Gallows Grove
Gallows Grove
Blackclad Wayfarer
The Mission: Fire Support (two flags - control one for 1 CP, dominate one for 2 CP, destroy enemy objective for 1 CP, first to 5 wins)
** Rick won the roll to go first, and took the side of the board with a wall for Xerxis to hide behind, and I took first turn.
Pre-game thoughts:
Well, this was the list I didn't necessarily want to see. I was/am somewhat rusty with Morvahna, and was still pretty new to this list (Ravagers instead of Wolves). Each of these infantry units costed Rick one point less than he normally would have had to pay, giving him some very cheap but also very powerful medium-based infantry.
Problem for me was that his infantry was clearly better than mine. I had a total of 14 infantry models, and Rick had a total of 23. While my feat would certainly make up some of the difference, I doubted my own infantry could actually beat his blow-for-blow.
The other problem was that Molik Karn + Gladiator are probably overall better than my two Stalkers. Molik out-threats anything in my army, and he can charge through his own models.
My plan then was to jam him in his deployment zone. I would lose on attrition, but it would take a long time, and if Rick's infantry was unable to get to the flags, I could win via scenario.
Deployment:
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| That's a lot of medium-based infantry! |
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| Here's what our forces look like. Sad to be outnumbered by better models :) |
Circle Turn 1:
I ran up. Morvahna put up Fog of War, and she put Carnivore on the Skinwalkers.
Skorne Turn 1:
Rick also moved up, but wasn't in range to charge me.
He did shoot a few shots at my models, which set a couple of them on fire. Fog of War kept him from directly hitting me though.
Xerxis put Defender's Ward on the Cetrati in the center.
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| I really did go the full distance allowed with almost all my models - gotta keep him stuck in his zone for as long as I can! |
Circle Turn 2:
I decided to commit my Ravagers, and leave the Skinwalkers ready to counter-assault next turn.
I upkept Fog of War but dropped Carnivore.
Morvahna went first, and put Carnivore on the Ravagers, then used her light cav move to get back on the hill.
Ravagers went, and I discovered that the infantry was super-low DEF and that Carnivore was actually a bad thing to have on them, since I wouldn't get any corpse tokens with Carnivore up.
I put a dent in a few infantry, and I think I killed about 3 on the left side. I got ready for some hard-hitting awesomeness, but things were looking good so far.
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| Morv camped 4, which Rick told me was a good idea afterward, since Molik was likely in range to assassinate me. Looking at this, I'm not sure if Xerxis could have gotten close enough to force him anyways, but still good that I camped :) |
Skorne Turn 2:
Rick did as I predicted and killed a swathe of my infantry. He even managed to kill two of my Skinwalkers, along with four of my Ravagers.
He also took this opportunity to pop his feat, which I felt was a good idea - there would never be another turn that he needed it more than this turn.
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| Lots of my models are dead, but that can be rectified... once. |
Circle Turn 3:
After hemming and hawing a bunch, I decided to pop my feat this turn. I dropped both Fog of War and Carnivore.
Morvahna went first, and advanced pretty far, then used Purification to get rid of Defender's Ward - I wanted Xerxis to start spending more Fury. She then put Carnivore on the Skinwalkers, and popped her feat, bringing back all seven of my dead infantry. My goal was to jam them up as much as possible, especially on the right side, as my Ravagers seemed to be actually doing alright. Morvahna then used her cavalry move to get back on the hill.
Ravagers went next and killed a few more infantry on the left.
One Stalker put Lightning Strike on the rightmost Stalker.
Rightmost Stalker warped for Strength and charged one of the Arcurii that was tying up my Skinwalkers, preventing them from charging, then sprinted back to Morvahna.
Skinwalkers did some damage to the Cetrati, and killed a few other infantry on the right, healing Morvahna.
Gorax riled for 3 and meandered up to the left flag to hold it.
I scored a point.
Score: 1-0, advantage Circle.
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| Notice my standoff distance between Morvahna and the infantry. This was almost entirely due to the Molik threat range - if he doesn't have infantry to hit and use Sidestep on, then he can't get to me. In theory :) |
Skorne Turn 3:
Rick butchered a bunch of my infantry. He rolled somewhat poorly this turn (other turns as well), but still killed about 5 Ravagers and two Skinwalkers.
However, my jam ended up working the way I wanted it - he was unable to contest my objective, so I scored another point.
Score: 2-0, advantage Circle.
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| Heh, his infantry are so much better than mine... |
Circle Turn 4:
I thought for a long while about just trying to kill his objective on the right and dominating with Morvahna on the left for the win.
However, I only had a couple of Skinwalkers on the right, and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get the distance I needed with a charging Stalker. It was a little too risky for me, and I figured I had at least one more turn.
So, I upkept Carnivore, and my infantry charged where they could.
I managed to kill both TyCom models, and with the aid of rerolls, I managed to CMA a bunch of Cetrati and Arcuri to death.
Morvahna put Lightning Strike on the rightmost Stalker, who charged in (he would have had range), and killed a couple infantry models, then ran away again.
Gorax scored another point.
Score: 3-0, advantage Circle.
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| We're both running out of models, but Rick still certainly has the advantage. And, he's still got Molik. |
Skorne Turn 4:
Rick knew he needed to contest the flag on the left, and to start doing some damage to my backfield.
His infantry had another glorious turn, and killed every single one of my models except for one Tharn Ravager, who had 1 box left.
Molik (fully buffed with Fatewalker and Enrage) charged my Gorax and randomly missed with his combo-attack. He was too far away to force Molik more, so he used his Fatewalker move to contest the flag.
Score: 3-0, advantage Circle.
Circle Turn 5:
I essentially needed to kill Molik this turn, but if I could, then I'd win.
I started by using my Stones to place the Stalker within 2" of Molik.
Gorax put Primal on the Stalker.
Morvanha then put Carnivore on the Stalker, then used her light cavalry move to get into B2B with the flag.
Stalker activated and warped for STR. He took three swings at Molik and killed him easily. The game ended.
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| Never played against Molik without killing him, even in losses, haha |
Results: Win for Circle via scenario!!
Post-game thoughts:
Well... that game was a slog! Not that it was a crappy game or anything - Rick was great! But, it was still a lot of multi-wound models on both sides of the table. I was actually pretty happy with the way I played in this game. I kept out of Molik's ridiculous threat range, while keeping Morvahna's buffs on relevant units. My biggest mistakes were fairly minor - things like putting Carnivore on the Ravagers, and putting a few of my feated models in risky situations they didn't need to be in.
Rick didn't really roll very well this game, and there were a few times I spiked some ridiculous damage, though I think the result would have been similar had the dice been more even. More of my models dead before my feat turn would have just let me feat back more guys, while more models dead after my feat turn would not have really been possible - he killed a TON of them, bad dice or no :)
One regret I had was that I didn't go and kill the objective on the right to win on Turn 4. I could have done it, but I wasn't sure if I had range. I need to get better at gauging distances, though I suppose I am happy that I decided to play it safer.
One other thing I should mention, which is a huge mistake on my part: I forgot to use my Blackclad Wayfarer. I wouldn't be surprised if Rick would have allowed me to deploy him once the game started (he was a great opponent!), but I didn't want to ask that sort of thing. My own stupid fault, honestly. Really, really bad play on my part. Can't believe I did that to myself, heh.
At any rate, I was 1-0, and excited for my next game!
Game 2: Circle vs. Johnathan V's Circle!
Pairing debate:
Wow, wish I had a picture of his lists - I thought I had taken one :-/
He had Kromac w/ Stalker, Gorax, Feral, Una, Shrimp as one list. Then, Morv2 and Krueger2. Pretty much the "standard" Circle trio.
I saw this as a good opportunity to drop Cassius. Hellmouth is really strong against Circle infantry, and while most of Circle doesn't care about rough terrain, my feat would block his visibility pretty well. My other casters would also work against Circle (Morv2 could do some work against another Morv2, heh), but in this case, I felt that this was my opportunity to rid myself of the Cassius list.
He ended up dropping Kromac against me, which was a little sad - I know Kromac the least of the three, haha!
His List (from memory):
Kromac the Ravenous
-Warpwolf Stalker
-Feral Warpwolf
-Gorax
-Argus Moonhound
Una
-Rotterhorn Griffon
Stoneward and Wold Stalkers
Stoneward and Wold Stalkers
Swamp Gobbers
Shifting Stones
Shifting Stones
-Stone Watcher (UA)
Druid Wilder
Blackclad Wayfarer
Gallows Grove
Gallows Grove
My List:
Cassius & Wurmwood
-Megalith
-Warpwolf Stalker
-Gorax
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (max)
Tharn Ravagers (max)
-Tharn Ravager Chieftain (UA)
Swamp Gobbers
Shifting Stones
-Stone Keeper (UA)
Shifting Stones
Gallows Grove
Gallows Grove
Blackclad Wayfarer
The Mission: Balance of Power (6" x 12" zone in the middle of the board - hold for 1 CP, dominate for 2 CP, dominate your flag to subtract opponent's CP by 1)
**I won the roll to go first, and took it.
Pre-game thoughts:
Well... crap. I haven't had much experience at all in the mirror match. I've traditionally been great with mirror matches in other games, since I know the faction well enough to oftentimes outplay my opponents. This was a little different, as I had little experience with Kromac, and zero experience with the Feral, Moonhound, Una, or the Griffon.
My plan was simple enough - kill one of his heavies early on, and then just use Hellmouth to wipe out his various support pieces. I also needed to keep an eye on his assassination run, as I knew with a double port and Warpath that his models could get some ridiculous distances.
Deployment:
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| His deployment. Very symmetrical. |
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| My deployment: not very symmetrical. |
My Circle Turn 1:
I ran the Ravagers up to threaten the zone and keep his own forces as far back as possible. I knew I would lose some of them to shooting next turn, but I wanted to be sure that he kept his distance.
Everything else also ran up, for that matter. I made a big mistake here, by not getting Wurmwood a little farther forward. He wasn't in range to collect souls, and as you likely know by now, that's what this list depends on. I wanted to keep him in the forest for some reason instead.
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| Gotta keep pushing up! |
This turn took him about 20 minutes, haha!
He got his Wold Stalkers up and killed a few of my Ravagers.
His Rotterhorn got Acceleration on himself, then he ran. My opponent insisted that he should be able to use his special action even though he ran, and I was fairly sure that it had been ruled against, but I didn't want to waste his clock for something trivial like that, so I told him to roll it. He failed to hurt my one Ravager it effected.
His Stalker had Lightning Strike cast on him, and he double-ported up to kill a Ravager, then ran backwards, into his Gobber cloud.
Finally, Kromac went, and cast Inviolable Resolve, Wild Aggression, and Warpath, then popped his feat and also cast Bestial. He then forgot to move Kromac foward.
His Argus also ran forward, toward the beginning of the turn, to help the Shrimp shoot better.
Overall, not a terrible turn for me - I was counting on losing a few of my models. Zero souls collected though, which was a bit sad.
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| Time to kill some stuff! |
MY Circle Turn 2:
My goal this turn was to kill his Feral, Moonhound, and Griffon, along with some Shrimp.
But, I did a great job of messing things up. :-/
I thought a red Stone of mine was in range to port within 3" of the Feral, to drag it out, but after I moved it, I saw that it was at least 4" out! Whoops.
I had also intended to port Megalith into the Moonhound to pop his Animus and kill the Moonhound, but forgot to do that.
Instead, I panicked after the Stone was too far, and activated the Ravagers next. I had one charge the Griffon to be within 3" of the Feral, so that I could drag him closer with Hellmouth. This wasn't a terrible move, except that I also put the Chieftain into the Moonhound, exactly where Megalith was supposed to be. One Ravager killed a Gallows Grove, and another killed a single Shrimp. Only good part about this activation was that the Griffon took a really, really hard hit from the Ravager.
I activated Cassius and had him arc a Hellmouth into my Ravager, which pulled the Feral closer, and incidentally killed the mostly-dead Griffon
Megalith put his animus up and charged the Moonhound to get the Feral within 5" of him so he'd be a lower DEF.
Blackclad then realized that the Feral would be impossible to hit with Hunter's Mark due to being engaged, so he sprayed the Moonhound, which also got the Gallows Grove and a Shrimp, killing the Grove and Shrimp.
Stalker charged the Feral (or maybe the Stones placed him there?), warping for STR, but only afterward realized that I had forgotten to put Primal up.
I did some good damage to the Feral, but I missed three swings in a row, and I failed to kill him. Really, really bad move here. Probably my worst of the tournament. You'll see why.
Nyss went and killed 4 Shrimp with a charge.
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| I could have killed 2 lights, a heavy, and a ton of infantry if I had executed better. Instead, I killed a light and some incidental infantry. sigh. |
He had another long turn, about 20 minutes. It was probably worth it though.
First, his Stalker went and killed my Stalker with only Berserk. Easy enough, haha. He also killed a Stone and my Ravager, and a random Nyss, who had wandered too close - Wild Aggression is a goods spell, it turns out. He then Lightnight Struck away.
Blackclad shot my Megalith with Hunter's Mark, and someone put Primal on the Feral, who then charged Megalith and killed him easily with POW 19 hits. He then used Warpath to go and swing another time at my Blackclad, but missed.
Other things happened, including several Nyss being tied up by a single Stoneward's reach weapon, and some Shrimp killing my Gallows Grove.
Only one Ravager remained alive.
I'd lost two heavies, along with a few other things, in one turn, for zero return. Really, really good turn for my opponent.
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| Kromac moved up and got warped by some Stones, by the way. If he had forgotten to teleport him, my Nyss could have assassinated him easily, as he used all his focus that turn. |
MY Circle Turn 3:
It was at this point I noticed that my opponent only had about 20 minutes of clock remaining, and decided I shouldn't give up quite yet.
I just couldn't see how I could win the attrition game at this point - my Nyss were mostly intact, but grossly out of charge range. I would need a solid CRA to even consider finishing him off.
I started with my remaining Ravager charge the Stoneward on the right. He needed a 5 to hit, and missed.
I needed my Nyss to be free this turn if I had any hope, so I activated Cassius and had him arc a Stranglehold on the Stoneward, needing an 8. I boosted just to be sure, but missed. *curses* To make things worse, it then DID hit my Ravager, and spiked damage, killing him. /wrist
So, the Nyss ran/charged, and killed the Stoneward, finally. They also killed the remaining Shrimp on that side of the board, and one of them did a disgusting amount of damage randomly to the Moonhound.
Gorax charged the Moonhound, but failed to finish it, missing all his swings.
Blackclad went, and shot a spray at a Stone and a Gobber. He managed to spike a hit on both, and surprisingly I killed both the Gobber AND the stone (needed an 11 to kill it, haha).
Intact Stones shifted to surround Cassius and the Tree, which had not moved since deployment.
Cracked Stones ported into the zone to keep him from scoring next turn.
What an awful turn by me again.
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| At least it's not Killbox, haha! |
HIS Circle Turn 3:
His Gorax went and killed a nearby Nyss.
Stalker went in and killed my own Gorax, leaving me without a beast.
Feral frenzied and killed my Blackclad easily.
Shrimp on the left advanced and killed one of my intact Stones.
Not as much died this turn - could things be looking up, or am I just out of stuff worth killing?
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| Still no score for him |
MY Circle Turn 4:
I noticed that my opponent had about 10 minutes left, to my 25. Could I force him to clock himself out? I decided that I would try.
First, I saw an opportunity to get back at my opponent a little bit. I shifted a red Stone into the middle of Una, 3 Shrimp, the Stoneward, and the Blackclad.
Cassius, (who had to cut some this turn) cast Hellmouth on the Stone and managed to kill all 3 Shrimp, Una, and the Blackclad. He then used Unseen Path to get back to Wurmwood and out of danger.
Nyss charged the Gorax and Moonhound. They killed the Gorax easily enough, but the Moonhound remained elusive.
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| I actually killed a bunch of stuff this turn! |
HIS Circle Turn 4:
My opponent killed a bunch of stuff in the zone this turn, with a berserking Stalker killing a few more Nyss and lightning striking out again.
Feral did something - I think my opponent ran out of models to kill my contesting Grove, so he had to charge and kill it.
Kromac got into the zone and scored two points.
Score: 2-0, advantage HIS Circle
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| He still has so much more than I do! |
MY Circle Turn 5:
I was fast running out of models, and I had to cut this turn. BUT, my opponent only had 5 minutes left on his clock, and I knew I could hold out for at least one more turn because hey - I still have a feat!
I had to be concerned with his Feral trampling to me, so I put my remaining red Stone about 3" behind him.
Cassius charged his Gobbers in the back, cast Hellmouth to drag the Feral 3" backwards (did some damage too, woot!), then used Unseen Path to get back into the forest, and popped his feat.
Nyss charged the Moonhound in an effort to both contest the zone and also to kill the Moonhound and to get the Stalker to come over and butcher them and burn clock.
Score: 2-0, advantage HIS Circle
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| Getting desperate here, haha! Notice the Nyss near the Feral - that's to keep the Feral from charging the Gobbers next turn, or to have him expose Kromac so that I can try to assassinate him with Cassius. |
HIS Circle Turn 5:
Stalker went in and killed all the Nyss nearby, and also killed his own Moonhound, due to Berserk.
Feral killed the last remaining Nyss.
Kromac again dominated the zone for 2 CP.
Score: 4-0, advantage HIS Circle
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| Not much of my stuff remaining. Not much of his own, for that matter. |
MY Circle Turn 6:
He had 20 second remaining.
So, I ran my guys into the corners of the zones, and ported my Stones to contest as well. He would need to kill 3 Stones, my Stone Keeper, and 2 DEF 15 Gobbers in 20 seconds.
Score: 4-0, advantage HIS Circle
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| Can he kill enough in time? |
My opponent saw the clock and decided to call it there, since his Feral wouldn't have charge distance to Cassius through the forest.
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| I still had enough time to go another... 8 or 9 turns at least, haha! |
Results: Win for MY Circle via clock (technically an assassination)
Post-game thoughts:
Wow. Just, wow. Never thought I'd win this game after he managed to kill both of my Heavies without him losing at least one of them in exchange. Not that I won "fairly" really, I had to keep him busy enough to clock himself out. When you see my final score sheet, we actually calculated my points killed this round incorrectly - because this counted as an assassination, I actually should have gotten points for killing the Stalker and Feral, which would have given me like 56 points killed or something, since casters count as another 5 points. He got close to that on a loss, haha!
I just failed to execute this game. The obvious culprit was not putting Primal on the Stalker to kill the Feral. I also really should have gotten Wurmwood farther up the board to get some souls. Had Cassius had more souls this game, I could have done a lot more stuff. Not that I would have won just because of that or anything, but I could have had a much better game.
Let's focus on some of the good stuff I did this game, because, despite my glaring errors, I did do some good stuff.
First, I recognized my chance to win, and took steps toward making that happen. While this seems like a weak way to win, I did keep forcing my opponent to kill tough-to-reach models if he wanted to win, which took him time. While this wouldn't work against everyone, it worked this time.
Second, I did make some good moves that would have helped a lot had my dice been a little better. My Nyss could have potentially killed the Feral, or done some massive damage to it, had I been able to hit the Stoneward with the Ravager, or the boosted "8" with Stranglehold. Neither worked, and I therefore had to take a full turn with Nyss to kill a single, useless model.
I was also able to get a Hellmouth at the perfect spot to kill a ton of his support solos and models, which really made him work hard. And I was able to kill a ton of his other models that weren't his heavies. As in, almost all of them. He had some Stones and his Wilder left. Not terrible when I essentially started the game without either of my heavies.
So, while I won't say this was anything but a lucky win, I do feel that I played well enough that luck wasn't the only factor in that victory. Guy is just lucky I didn't remember Primal, haha :)
Another really skilled/fun opponent. 2-0, and now I'm clear to play Krueger2 the rest of the day, should I desire!
Game 3: Circle vs. Tyson's Cygnar!!
His lists (the far left one is Haley2):
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| Haley2, Siege, and double-Stormwall Darius. |
Pairings Debate:
I had played one (really fast/uncompetitive) game against one of the Nemos. That was the extent of my experience against Cygnar up to this game. My opponent had already played Darius twice, and he mentioned that he was looking to play all his casters so that he wasn't list locked. As such, I suspected I would be getting a rough initiation into playing against Cygnar at the hands of Haley2.
I chose Krueger2, mostly because I knew that Storm Wall (my spell) would serve me well against a ton of Cygnar models, and that my Bloodtrackers would give him a rough time, regardless of his ability to ignore stealth.
Also, the scenario was really good for Krueger2 :)
So, I dropped Krueger2, and he dropped... Siege.
His List:
Seige
-Lancer
Lieutenant Allison Jakes
-Centurion
Boomhowlers (max)
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters
-Murdock
Rangers (6 of them - is that max?)
Alexia1 w/ Risen
Reinholdt
Journeyman Warcaster
Squire
My List:
Krueger2
-Ghettorix
-Warpwolf Stalker
-Gorax
Stoneward and Wold Stalkers
Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)
-Nuala (UA)
Druids of Orboros
-Druid Overseer (UA)
Shifting Stones
-Stone Keeper (UA)
Gallows Grove
Blackclad Wayfarer
The Mission: Incursion (three flags in the center, equidistant. One outside flag disappears at the end of Round 1. Dominate outside flag for 2, control either flag for 1, dominate middle flag for 1.)
**I won the roll to go first, and took it.
Pre-game thoughts:
Well... I wasn't honestly sure about this game or how to go about it. I knew that he had a ton of models, and that Alexia1 would keep making more and more models to jam the flags. I honestly wished I had taken Morvahna for this game, though apparently my opponent was sad that I had chosen Krueger2. Go figure :)
I needed to do what Krueger does best - keep people off the flags, have one dominant turn of scoring 3 points, and then just take things from there. I wasn't really under the impression that I could win on attrition this game, so it would need to end sooner than later, if at all.
Deployment:
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| Rangers are really good, as it turns out... |
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| I put Prey on Boomhowlers. |
Circle Turn 1:
I ran up. Druids popped smoke. Bloodtrackers spread out in an attempt to keep Boomhowlers from getting to the left flag, while the right flag was going to be difficult for either of us to get to.
Pretty standard formation from me out the gate.
Krueger put up Storm Wall.
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| Gotta threaten the flags ASAP! |
Tyson ran up as well, but much more cautiously.
He managed to kill a few of my Bloodtrackers with various shooting.
Nyss advanced and tried to shoot, but didn't get range.
Lancer decided to run up and screen the Centurion.
Alexia made a Thrall and put it in the forest with the Rangers.
The left flag disappeared, disappointing both of us.
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| Not a terribly surprising turn, honestly. |
Circle Turn 2:
I couldn't score this turn, but I could set up a good turn for myself, theoretically. Also, I could kill his Lancer, if I could hit.
My idea this turn was just to jam the Boomhowlers and Rangers with the Bloodtrackers, as it would take a long time for the Boomhowlers to cut their way free of the Bloodtrackers, and the Rangers would likewise have a tough time extracting themselves.
So, the Bloodtrackers advanced and killed a couple of Boomhowlers, who were ARM 18 from the Junior's Arcane Shield, then used Reform to get into melee with several of the front models.
Druids advanced, and targeted the Lancer with their magic push/pull shots. They did a little damage, but succeeded in dragging the damn thing kind of close. A couple of them also took shots at the Thrall in the forest, killing it.
Krueger advanced and put up Storm Wall again, then put Lightning Strike on Ghetto, then advanced 6" toward the right flag.
Stones placed Ghetto within 2" of the Lancer.
Ghetto warped for STR and killed the Lancer easily, then sprinted away behind the Druids.
Shrimp advanced to threaten the right flag, and shot (missing) at the Nyss, who had cover that turn from Murdock's mini-feat.
 |
| Well, killed a meaningless Thrall and the Lancer. Not a huge awesome turn, but I did succeed in jamming a little bit - let's see how Tyson responds. |
Cygnar Turn 2:
Tyson started with the Boomhowlers, who killed a couple more Bloodtrackers, but not many. Hard to hit with Boomhowlers, apparently.
Nyss did a little better, killing 3 Shrimp and two Druids.
Alexia made some more Risen, and advanced close to Siege.
Siege (who was reloaded by Reinholdt) shot at something but mostly missed or did incidental damage. Maybe he really hurt Ghetto? I forget, heh.
He did cast Foxhole on himself, getting a bunch of Risen and other support models in the Foxhole.
 |
| He wasn't nearly as aggressive as I thought he would be... |
Circle Turn 3:
I thought long and hard about getting Krueger to the right objective this turn, but it would only have been possible if I charged - I needed him to get 11.5", and Hunter's Mark wouldn't help him, since it only targets enemy models. Instead, I decided to save my feat and try and "only" score 2 points this turn.
I had the Bloodtrackers go first, and while they did some damage to the Boomhowlers, they also failed to kill the one Ranger threatening the center flag.
Druids moved up and out of Ghetto's charge path, shooting their shots and doing very little.
I had the Stalker put Lightning Strike on Ghetto, who charged the contesting Ranger, boosted to hit, and killed him (Rangers passed their Terror check), then Sprinted away again.
Krueger advanced the full 6" toward the flag, then boosted a shot into the Nyss hiding in the woods. I needed an 11, got it, and killed the Nyss. After some thought, I also put up Storm Wall in order to keep Siege from feating and shooting Krueger (he looked to be out of range if I kept Storm Wall up)
Blackclad advanced B2B with the right flag, and Gorax advanced B2B with the center flag, scoring me 2 CP.
Score: 2-0, advantage Circle
 |
| Not a terrible turn for me, all things told. |
Tyson used some Boomhowlers to kill more Bloodtrackers - I wasn't really winning that fight, but was doing what was necessary at least.
Nyss charged my Shrimp and Blackclad, killing all but two Shrimp.
Alexia made some Risen, who did some good damage to the Gorax.
Siege popped his feat and killed my Gorax, as well as putting some gnarly damage on Ghetto, I believe.
Lots of really high-DEF models contested the right flag, but only about 3 models contested the center.
Score: 2-0, advantage Circle
 |
| Bloodtrackers are getting murdered, but they're doing their job! |
Circle Turn 4:
I went into the tank for a few minutes, but decided that I would try to win this turn.
First, the Druids went and killed the nearby Risen.
Stalker again gave Lightning Strike to Ghetto.
Ghetto charged the Ranger in the forest, killed him, and Sprinted back into B2B with the flag.
Shrimp went next, and one of them walked out of melee, giving the engaging Nyss a free strike, which he somehow missed (needed a 4 to hit, haha). The other Shrimp aimed, and the two of them managed to kill two Nyss, one of which was important to kill.
Krueger charged the center Nyss (making sure to go B2B with the flag), boosted to hit, and killed her. He them popped his feat, pushing all the Nyss over 4" away from the flag.
Krueger dominated the right flag for 2 CP, and Ghetto controlled the center flag for 1 CP, ending the game.
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| I think we picked up Ghetto and put him back near the flag before this picture was taken. The rest is accurate. |
Results: Win for Circle via Scenario!!
Post-game thoughts:
I couldn't believe I beat an army I had essentially never played against, in Round 3 of a big tournament against an undefeated opponent!! Really a cool feeling :)
Honestly, I felt like I played pretty well here. Not to toot my own horn, but I was happy with the moves I made, including having Ghetto go in and wreck up the place a couple models at a time. I've done the same thing in a lot of games - have Krueger charge the flag and dominate it on the same turn his feat pushes everyone off of the center flag. Nothing new there, but it was good to see that it worked against Cygnar as well :)
Bloodtrackers are really good jamming units, surprisingly. They do some good work, but with K2, they're even better, since they keep opponents from getting to the center of the board. My Bloodtrackers took the Centurion, Boomhowlers, and Rangers mostly out of the game, though they were definitely losing, and would have eventually lost, mostly likely.
It's embarassing, but I again failed to put all my models on the board. This time I forgot a Gallows Grove. I realized it at the start of my Turn 1, but didn't say anything to my opponent. My own damn fault.
Anyways, Tyson was a fun guy to play, and I was glad to get to play against him! I personally thought he should have been a little more aggressive with his models (he could have jammed up the center objective much better and made me work much harder for it), and his Centurion didn't do much this game either. I think next time he plays Krueger2, he'll keep the scenario in mind a little more :)
Tyson ended up at 4-2 for the day. Good player, I mostly just got lucky that he didn't get more aggressive with me, or take both Stormwalls :)
My wife sent me this picture after this game and I figured I'd include it, since it was in the middle of all my game pictures (I take pictures with my phone). Perrin is reading one of my old (I think it's 4th edition?) Space Marine Codices. This is one of the few intact pages remaining :)
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| Only 8 months old and he's already scheming, though he'll probably learn soon enough that Land Raiders aren't actually good :) |
I was pumped to be in the top 8! The remaining players included myself, James (from Denver) who played Cryx, Collin (also from Denver) who played Trolls, Jay Larson from the Chain Attack podcast who played Trolls, two Merc players, a Khador player, and a Retribution player. I was already the only Circle player left standing!
More importantly, I only needed to win one more game to get to my record. Would this game be the one?
Game 4: Circle vs. Ed Hatchel's Mercs
Pairings Debate:
 |
| Sideways lists!! |
Further, I had no clue which of his casters he would likely play against me.
All this combined to eliminate Cassius as a contender for who I would pick, since he is the most matchup dependent caster I have.
After juggling around in my mind a little bit, I decided that because Ed had taken an Earthbreaker in a couple different lists, I would have a better time dealing with it if I had Ghettorix. Further, I didn't know how much shooting/magic any of these casters had, but I wanted to block it if I could. As such, I decided that Krueger would be my best pick.
I chose Krueger2, and Ed chose Gorton.
His List:
Gorton w/ Searforge Contract
-Earthbreaker
Forgeguard (max)
Forgeguard (max)
Forgeguard (max)
Tactical Arcanist Corp (TAC)
Tactical Arcanist Corp (TAC)
Tactical Arcanist Corp (TAC)
Lord Rockbottom
My List:
Krueger2
-Ghettorix
-Warpwolf Stalker
-Gorax
Stoneward and Wold Stalkers
Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)
-Nuala (UA)
Druids of Orboros
-Druid Overseer (UA)
Shifting Stones
-Stone Keeper (UA)
Gallows Grove
Blackclad Wayfarer
The Mission: Outflank? (two 12" circle zones in in the center, equidistant from each board edge and each other. Control for 1 CP and Dominate for 2 CP)
**I won the roll to go first, and took it
Pre-game thoughts:
After reading Ed's cards, I felt a little more comfortable. He had 30 really slow weaponmaster infantry and a Colossal that I didn't think he could really buff. He also had a caster that wouldn't really want to give the Earthbreaker focus, since he only had 5 FOC, and he had enough good upkeeps that he would want to spend at least a focus or two on that.
I felt that I could deal with 30 Dwarves and the Colossal, though I kind of discounted the TAC and what sort of damage they could do. Never again :)
I felt like I had a good shot at winning by scenario here. The Dwarves would need to react to my own movement, and I could choose where the engagement would occur. My goal was to kill as many Forgeguard as possible until Ed was forced to commit his Earthbreaker, at which point I would send in two heavies and kill the thing.
Deployment:
 |
| These pictures are a little darker than the others for some reason. You've been warned :) |
 |
| Not the best picture ever. Looks like there was a water effect on the top right - I think we both assumed it was a forest though. I know that I did, though Ed is a good enough player that I wouldn't be surprised if he knew it for what it was :) |
Circle Turn 1:
I ran forward. I had put Prey on a unit of Forge Guard to the far right, and the Bloodtrackers zoomed in to try and kill them.
On the left, the Shrimp got into the zone to get ready to shoot up some DEF 10 dwarves.
Everything else moved up the middle, with the Druids popping smoke to keep him from seeing my models. Storm Wall went up so that his Earthbreaker didn't get any crazy ideas.
 |
| His deployment zone was set 4" farther up because of his contract. Pretty helpful for SPD 4 dwarves! |
Mercs Turn 1:
Ed surprised me greatly by running his Forgeguard away from the Bloodtrackers and behind the Earthbreaker.
Instead, he had his Earthbreaker shoot at the Bloodtrackers. Lots of deviations later, and he had killed a few Bloodtrackers, but not too many.
Other Forgeguard ran forward to threaten zones.
Gorton put up a wall in front of the TAC on the far right, to prevent the Bloodtrackers from getting easy kills.
At this point, I realized that Ed was a really good player - he knew his business. He was patient enough to keep his Forgeguard in reserve instead of just having them fight a battle with Bloodtrackers who would just butcher them, and put up a wall to protect the one unit I could conceivably wipe out next turn.
Guess that's what happens when you get to this level at a tournament, haha!
 |
| The lines of engagement are set. Kind of. |
Circle Turn 2:
I couldn't score this turn, so I just wanted to concentrate on killing Forgeguard.
Shrimp went first, and rolled pretty well to kill 4 Forgeguard, then used Zephyr to get back to the back of the zone.
Druids went and really super-failed to do much. They were trying to kill a TAC member, but only succeeded in dragging one of them a little closer. The rest put up smoke.
I shot one of the middle Forgeguard with Hunter's Mark on the Blackclad.
Krueger put Lightning Strike on the Stalker, and advanced behind a wall.
Stalker charged the Forgeguard with Hunter's Mark and warped for Berserk. He ended up clearing out 6 or 7 Forgeguard easily, and Lightning Struck back to the Druids and their smoke.
Bloodtrackers decided to be annoying and throw their spears at the TAC behind the wall, one of which was not getting the wall cover bonus. I rolled a little poorly though, and couldn't hit the DEF 11 model more than once, and I didn't get enough damage to kill him. Nuala told them to reform into annoyance pattern, one of them engaged two TAC, while another engaged the Earthbreaker.
 |
| Not my favorite turn, but I did manage to kill at least 10 Dwarves. If I can do that a couple more turns in a row, I'll be in good shape! |
Mercs Turn 2:
Ed decided this would be his feat turn, and I quickly realized that I had made a mistake.
You see, I'm used to Krueger2 pushing guys backwards with his feat. I don't get a choice. Also, it's only 3". I knew that Gorton's feat was good, but for some reason I always assumed that he would use the feat to push my models away instead of forward.
Gorton walked forward and popped his feat, choosing to push all models inside his 10" control area a total of 6" toward his own table edge. This had the result of him pulling in several Druids and, most importantly, my Stalker. It also happened to reduce my DEF by 3, and as such, the Druids and Stalker had very little chance of survival.
A flurry of 7" charges later and my Stalker and several Druids were dead.
Earthbreaker killed a few more Bloodtrackers.
The Prey'd Forgeguard ran to screen Gorton.
The leftmost Forgeguard ran up to engage the Shrimp.
Not the best turn in the world for me - I would now really struggle to kill his Earthbreaker, and I no longer had Berserk that I could butcher tens of thousands of Hammer Dwarves with.
Really wish I had remembered to take a picture here :-/
Circle Turn 3:
I saw that I had an opportunity to kill Gorton. He was screened behind a bunch of Dwarves, but I knew that if I could kill a few of them that Ghetto was very likely to be in range to get to Gorton.
If I failed on some level though, I was planning on clearing the right zone (only a couple TACs there) and dominating it, as well as attempting to clear out the left zone for a control there as well. But for now, the assassination was "live".
First, I had what Druids I had left advance and push a couple Dwarves backwards and away from Gorton.
Bloodtrackers advanced, and two or three of them were in range of their Prey. I needed to kill two Forgeguard, but only two of them were in range to shoot at them. However, with Prey, they only needed a "4" to hit (Dwarves were on a hill), and an "8" to kill. I managed to kill both Dwarves, and a few other Dwarves as well, just in case my assassination didn't work out.
I now had a hole in the ranks for Ghetto to get at Gorton.
Gorax activated, and put Primal on Ghetto.
Stones activated, and sent Ghetto up 8" plus his base. He would need a little nudge from Krueger and his Telekinesis in order to get there.
Krueger advanced 6" and was easily within the 8" he needed to TK Ghetto another 2", putting him in melee range of Gorton.
Ghetto activated and warped for STR, putting his POW at exactly Gorton's armor level (21). Ghetto was MAT 9, and Gorton DEF 13, meaning Ghetto would need 4's to hit, and straight dice for damage. He would have 5 total attacks.
Ghetto proved to be up to the task, and killed Gorton in 3 hits.
 |
| I forgot to make him take a terror check :-p |
Results: Win for Circle via assassination!!
Post-game thoughts:
Awesome! I have not really gotten very many assassinations with Krueger2 yet, mostly due to the fact that I'm still trying to wrap my mind around that part of the game, and K2 has a really good scenario game. I was seriously really proud of this assassination, mostly because it required several steps to accomplish, and it turned out to be pretty plausible.
If my Bloodtrackers had failed to kill the two models in question, and the Druids failed to push one of the models out of the way, I'd have essentially needed to go for the scenario victory, which I don't think was out of the question. I could have easily controlled the right zone that turn (he had no models in it), and I did feel that I could have likely dominated the left zone with a combination of Krueger shooting/feating, Ghetto killing TACs, and the Shrimp shooting a few more Dwarves, then hopefully forcing the dwarves outside the zone from getting in due to their 2" SPD and being forced to run.
That wasn't a certain thing at all though, and Ed seemed to think that if I hadn't killed Gorton that turn, I was done for. Wish I had more pictures of the end game :-/
Ed apparently did really well at the last IMC, placing 3rd or 4th or something. This IMC was no different - he ended up at 5-1 for a really high overall placing. I was lucky to be his one and only loss this tournament.
I couldn't believe that I had made the top 4! My goal for the day was to go 4-2, and I had already done that, no matter if I lost the next two game or not! However, my focus was shifted to trying to win the whole thing. It was two games away. The remaining players were Jay Larson, who had finished a mirror match of Trolls vs. Trolls where both players had a combined 3 minutes left on their clocks. There was a Retribution player, who I overheard saying wanted to play against me because of how new to the game I was, and a Khador player.
I knew they would all be way better than I was, but I hoped for the Khador player, mostly because I knew what most of their units did. I was most familiar with Khador, and knew who I would drop against them. The others... I at least knew a little bit. But let's be honest, I felt like I was by far the worst player remaining. Still, the cocky side of me felt like I could win the whole thing.
Game 5: Circle vs. Trent Bates' Khador
Pairing Debate:
He had Irusk2, Sorscha2, and Butcher3. I honestly didn't even read his lists - I was fairly certain he would drop Butcher3, since he rocks against Hordes in general, and in order to stop him, I needed Krueger2. Even if he dropped either of the other two casters, Krueger has been able to give them a rough time of it. But honestly, this was the easiest choice of the day for me.
I dropped Krueger2, and he dropped Butcher3.
His List:
Butcher3
-Berserker
Iron Fang Pikemen (max)
-UA
Kayazi Assassins (max)
-UA
Doom Reavers
-UA
Tactical Arcanist Corp
Widowmakers
War Dog
Kell Bailoch
Madelyn Corbeau
Eiyriss2
My List:
Krueger2
-Ghettorix
-Warpwolf Stalker
-Gorax
Stoneward and Wold Stalkers
Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)
-Nuala (UA)
Druids of Orboros
-Druid Overseer (UA)
Shifting Stones
-Stone Keeper (UA)
Gallows Grove
Blackclad Wayfarer
The Mission: Close Quarters (two flags near the middle. Dominate enemy flag for 2, control enemy flag for 1, dominate own flag for 1. KILLBOX.
**I won the roll to go first, and took it. He chose the side with a big old house in the middle of my side. Heh.
Pre-game thoughts:
This game was live streamed, so everyone on the internets would get to know just how crappy a player I was. Kind of nerve-wracking, to be honest. My first big event and I'm suddenly playing for everyone to watch and criticize? I've done the whole streaming thing before for 40k, but I'm much better at 40k than I am at Warmachine. Not ashamed of my play in 40k :)
At any rate, I decided that I would go for the scenario victory. It would be tough, since you can only score a maximum of 2 points per turn in this scenario, but I felt that I could actually go toe-to-toe on attrition with Trent. He'd have the overall advantage, but if I could control his flag one turn, dominate it the next and pop my feat, then he'd be forced to run to get to the flag, and I'd have a turn to shoot/punch him off it.
I also wanted to be aware of my Druids and their interactions with the Butcher. He wouldn't be able to assassinate me easily if the Druids were counter-magic-ing nearby. I needed to keep the Druids safe, and in the early game, keep Krueger behind the house to keep from being dragged out by the Butcher if he managed to kill the counter-magic guy.
Deployment:
 |
| Bloodtrackers put Prey on the Ironfang Pikemen. |
Circle Turn 1:
I ran forward with everything. Druids popped smoke and cast Counter Magic, Krueger put up Storm Wall. Stones shifted behind the house, and the two Wolves hid out there as well for an easy port.
Khador Turn 1:
Trent also ran forward. The Doom Reavers charged some Bloodtrackers and killed a few.
He put up smoke in front of the Butcher, which was wise - I felt that I could have assassinated Butcher that turn if the smoke wasn't there to screen him. In fact, I still feel that way, haha :)
Oh yeah, Widowmakers shot at my Stoneward, who was foolishly behind the wall but not within 1" of it. I had to Sac Pawn three of my Shrimp from that. Foolish mistake on my part. I should have at least used the Shrimp to block his LOS to me.
 |
| So many dudes! |
Circle Turn 2:
I kind of failed a little this turn.I had some Bloodtrackers kill some Doom Reavers, but their shots bounced off the IFP, despite having prey on them. I honestly missed a lot of shots/swings. Just how it goes.
Stalker put Lightning Strike on Ghetto.
Stones ported Ghetto within reach of a couple Doom Reavers.
Ghetto killed both Doom Reavers and sprinted back to the house. This was a ploy - I hoped that Butcher would try to kill Ghetto this turn. If he did, he wouldn't have a full camp and I'd be able to kill him with a Primal'd Stalker.
Druids popped smoke and tried a couple shots at random guys, mostly failing. Overseer remembered he had a 4" AOE and dropped it on (I think?) a Widowmaker, killing her.
Overall, not my best turn, though I did set a few traps if my opponent wanted to take them.
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| Last picture for a little bit |
Khador Turn 2:
Trent contemplated killing Ghetto with Butcher, but decided against it. He had his Kayazy charge in and mostly whiff against my Druids, and the IFP and Doom Reavers went to town on the Bloodtrackers, who held together remarkably well, all things told.
One hit with a charging Doom Reaver knocked out Ghetto's mind. This is important for later.
Butcher decided to run to the hill on the right and camp his full stack, making him ARM 24. Notably, he was screened, but in charge range.
Circle Turn 3:
I couldn't stop focusing on the Butcher and his space relative to where Ghetto was. I had an assassination here, if I could do it right. Math told me that if I could get 5 hits on Butcher, I'd do an average of 20 damage, though with spikes and whatnot, my average would be a little higher even. If I could get 6 hits on him, I would easily exceed the damage necessary. I also had a Stalker who might be in range if I could get a TK to stick on Butcher.
So began the longest turn I've ever taken. It took over 30 minutes. Probably closer to 40.
Of note, I had the Gorax pick up and throw an Argus, killing it to clear the lanes.
I had the Druids drag Butcher off the hill, but I made a mistake and dragged him to within 2" of one of them. One drag would have been sufficient for my purposes, so that was my first mistake. Another mistake was for the Druids nearer to Ghetto not to get out of his charge lane.
I had my Blackclad, who had been planning on sticking Hunter's Mark on a TK'd-backwards Butcher spray those druids instead.
Shrimp went, and I used Zephyr to get them behind Butcher to stop him when his feat went off, so that he'd still be in range of a TK. I also messed this up, by putting them too close, and when I eventually popped my feat, one Druid was about a millimeter too close to Butcher, keeping him engaged.
Krueger went and popped his feat, which pushed everyone backwards some. As mentioned before, Butcher was still barely within 2" of one of my Druids, but he also got pushed backwards into range of his War Dog again.
It wouldn't matter if I got telekinesis off on him though. So, I attempted a TK on the Butcher through my Gallows Grove. He had DEF 18, so I would need an 11. I failed it. Wonder how that interacts with trying to hit a Druid or someone else engaging the model I missed, since it was an attack. Ah well, I didn't bother asking.
Instead, I put Primal on Ghetto.
The feat had cleared a charge path for Ghetto, though because I hadn't gotten the TK off, I would not be able to get my 2nd initial attack.
I had essentially committed at this point though, so I sent Ghetto hurtling toward a difficult assassination attempt - IF he hit all 4 attacks (he would need a 5 on his first attack, then a 7 for the rest, due to Butcher's DEF 16 vs. melee with the Dog nearby), he would do something like 16 damage, though with spikes it was still somewhat close to 50/50. IF I hit with all my attacks. Pretty low percentage at this point.
Ghetto went in, and it was at this point that my opponent pointed out that I hadn't healed his mind.
/wrist
I forced him to regenerate. So, now I get 3 total attacks instead of my initial 6.
My first punch hit, and spiked some damage though, causing 10. I had 10 more to cause, which would require some fancy rolling.
My second attack hit, and I did 4.
My third (and final) attack HIT.
I needed a "9" to kill Butcher.
Instead, I rolled a "5", and Butcher lived.
If I had had one more attack (and hit), average dice would have killed him.
Bloodtrackers killed some IFPs and Doom Reavers.
Stones shifted Krueger over to the other side of the house.
Very disappointing turn - I absolutely could have made it happen. I just needed that TK to go off, OR to remember to heal my mind (Krueger had 2 Fury left, and was very capable of doing it). Ghetto also could have probably been TK'd by Krueger to get a better angle on his charge. Any number of things to give me that extra attack.
Ah well. Maybe I could still get lucky and have Ghetto survive (lol).
Khador Turn 3:
My opponent was up by like 30 minutes on the clock at this point. He took his time leisurely killing Ghetto with Butcher, healed for 4, and popped his feat for another full camp just in case, then walked up onto the hill. Probably wise to heal for that much, since Krueger could have probably shot at him otherwise.
Surprisingly, a few Druids survived.
He did clear out most of my remaining Bloodtrackers - I was down to two, who failed their CMD check.
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| Lots of my stuff survived because of the feat. Not enough though :) |
Rest of the Game:
I actually found it in me to kill the rest of the Doom Reavers, most of the IFP, and even dominated my opponent's flag, but I was so extremely out of time that any comeback would have been too little, too late.
I ended up clocking myself out after a very rushed attempt to trample the Stalker over a bunch of running infantry so that Krueger could try a last-ditch assassination against Butcher via shooting. Stalker couldn't trample far enough though, and I lost on time :)
Results: Loss for Circle via Time Out/botched assassination attempt!
Post-game thoughts:
The dream was dead. I was kind of bummed, really.
Lots of fail this game. After looking at it again, I really do feel like I had a legitimate assassination run. If I do my maths right, I think (if I did it right) I could have had 6 attacks at a rear-facing Butcher, including one with a boosted damage roll (all hitting on a "3"). That would have been enough, unless my dice were awful. I almost got the job done with 3 attacks. 6 would have been very probable.
Ah well. I got excited by my Game 4 assassination and got stuck on trying to assassinate Butcher, who is much more difficult to kill. I still think that killing him was a high percentage IF I had executed correctly. Next time, I'll do better.
If I had decided to just go attrition, I think I also would have been okay, honestly. I could have used both of my Heavies AND Krueger, along with Bloodtrackers to clear out the IFP and Doom Reavers, and controlled for one turn, then pushed him off the flag the next turn for a Dominate, and the next turn plausibly killed enough to dominate again. Not a sure thing by any means, but I was certainly still "in" the scenario win discussion.
I'll chalk this down to inexperience and move on. Trent was a good player - he went on to win the whole thing. The fact that I had such a good opportunity to win probably means good things about me, though I clearly need to improve if I want to win any events.
At any rate, I still had a chance to place, if I could win my next game. Little did I know that I would be facing off against Scott Wray from the Chain Attack podcast.
Game 6: Circle vs. Scott Wray's Cryx
Pairings Debate:
My first inclination was to drop Cassius. After looking at his lists though, I decided that none of his lists would actually be a good matchup for Cassius. Some would be really awful, in fact.
And, if I wasn't going to drop Cassius, I felt like Krueger was probably my best answer. I knew that Mortenebra is generally the Cryx drop against Circle, so I expected Scott to drop her.
Instead, he dropped Skarre1, who was honestly even scarier to me.
His List:
Skarre1
-Deathripper
-Helldiver
Aiakos
-KRAKEN
Bane Cavalry (min)
Soul Hunters (max)
McThralls (min?)
Necrosurgeon
Darragh Wrathe
Skarlock Thrall
My List:
Krueger2
-Ghettorix
-Warpwolf Stalker
-Gorax
Stoneward and Wold Stalkers
Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)
-Nuala (UA)
Druids of Orboros
-Druid Overseer (UA)
Shifting Stones
-Stone Keeper (UA)
Gallows Grove
Blackclad Wayfarer
The Mission: Destruction (6" x 12" zone in the middle with 2 objectives on the corners. Destroy enemy objective for 1 CP, control zone for 1 CP, dominate zone for 2 CP)
**Scott won the roll to go first, and took it. I am proud to say that I swapped table sides instead of succumbing to gamer apathy.
Pre-game thoughts:
Well, shite. I was playing against a really good "internets famous" player who was running a caster I'd never played against. I knew what she could do (somewhat) but was mostly fuzzy on the details.
I knew nothing about Aiakos, and had only played against the Kraken once. The list just seemed really fast and flexible. I do know that I was happy that I had brought Krueger2 to this fight.
I decided to just play the game until her feat turn was over, then see where things stood.
You must realize by now that my brain was pretty tired. This was game 6 of a day full of really good players and lists, and I had eaten a small breakfast, followed some hours later by a handful of Chex mix.
So, you'll forgive me if I didn't have much of a plan going into this game.
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| His deployment - everything was painted! |
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| I put Prey on the Bane Riders. |
Cryx Turn 1:
He ran up! That was about it. Soul Hunters ducked for cover.
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| Of all the games, I wish I had gotten first turn the most in this one. |
Circle Turn 1:
I didn't have much to do. I had the Druids advance. I had one chance to drag the Helldiver in with my first Druid, but I missed (thing has 14 DEF!). I also tried to drag in the Deathripper but missed that as well (thing has 15 DEF!).
I marched my wolves and such behind the wall, figuring the Druids would keep the guys behind safe.
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| How do you feel about the game right now? |
Cryx Turn 2:
I really wasn't prepared for how far the Kraken could get in a turn, or how hard it could hit with Skarre.
Helldiver dove.
Aikos went first and gave the Kraken something to make him faster.
Skarre moved up some and cast Dark Guidance (one extra dice on melee attack rolls within her control), then popped her feat, giving everyone +5 ARM and +5 STR.
Darragh Wrathe put up "beyond death" to make sure my attacks would be useless. Like, -7 damage on each roll useless.
Bane Riders charged the Bloodtrackers but failed to kill them, mostly due to poor rolls.
Soul Hunters killed a few Druids, since they were swinging with 3 dice from Dark Guidance. One of the Druids screening Ghetto died. They then jammed up on me.
Kraken went and Scott decided that the Kraken was not in range to charge Ghetto, so he charged a Shifting Stone with the purpose of killing my Stalker.
Once he obliterated my Stone, he noticed that he was indeed within 4" of Ghetto, and caused some damage, but didn't kill him. Mind was gone again :)
No matter though - Kraken is only ARM 25 or something next turn from the feat, with "beyond death" also adding to my pillowfistedness.
I was in a pretty awkward position, to be sure.
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| Not much of my stuff died, but he's ARM +5 with beyond death affecting everything. |
Circle Turn 2:
It was almost too much for my tired mind to handle. How could I do anything this turn?
I thought for a little bit, and suddenly, it hit me.
"Are your models affected by the feat if they leave Skarre's control area?" I asked innocently.
"Why, no, if they're outside her control, the feat doesn't affect them," came Scotts paraphrased reply.
Krueger activated and charged a Soul Hunter directly in front of him. He missed, but that was whatever. He popped his feat and pushed Skarre (and everyone else) back 3", getting the Kraken out of her Control range. He then boosted a TK on Darragh Wrathe and put him 2" more backwards, so that my heavies could hit the Kraken at reach range and not be affected. Finally, he TK'd himself backward 2".
Stones remembered to heal Ghetto for some points :)
Gorax put Primal on the Stalker.
Stalker walked up and killed well over half of the Kraken, who was suddenly only ARM 19.
Ghetto walked up and finished the Kraken off.
Blackclad used his spray to put some hurt on a few Soulhunters.
Zephyr + Shrimp killed all but one Soulhunter.
Bloodtrackers wiped out the Bane Cavalry.
Druids tried to push the remaining Soulhunter backwards, but missed. They probably should have popped their smoke bubbles to protect Krueger. More efficient that way.
End of my turn, I had managed to kill the Kraken, Bane Riders, and most of the Soul Hunters. I figured I was safe with 2 transfers.
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| Pretty good turn, really. |
Cryx Turn 3:
Scott started by putting his Helldiver close to Krueger, but didn't measure his control range, and was unable to allocate focus to him. Huge break for me, as I had forgotten what the damn thing did (headbutt me then kill me)
Scott then acknowledged that I probably won the game because of that. But he decided to try, just for fun.
Aiakos went first and boosted his harpoon shot, needing a "10" to hit. He got it, and Krueger was dragged in. This made me nervous, as I had no idea that he had that power. What else could he possibly do to me?
Harpoon did 7 points, which wasn't enough to warrant a transfer.
Helldiver just jumped down into the ground again.
Darragh Wrathe walked up to punch Krueger, missed, then walked 5" back toward Skarre, after taking a gnarly free strike, which damn near de-mounted him (he had 2 boxes left)
Skarre went next and advanced to within 1" of Darragh. She then used a Sac Strike on Krueger, boosted the damage, and spiked the roll (he got a 14) on Dice +2 for damage) killing my Gorax and giving Krueger a point of damage besides. Skarre then put up Dark Guidance.
The last model Scott had was his Soul Hunter, but it had two soul tokens.
He did some damage on each of his 3 hits. It took until his last attack (after using all his tokens), which needed a "9" to hit (pre-boosted), and hit.
He then needed a "7" to kill. No boosts available. No transfers available.
Scott rolled exactly a 7, and killed Krueger.
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| Damnit. |
Post-game thoughts:
Sigh. I hate finding out models have amazing abilities in that way. Don't get me wrong, Scott was a really fun guy to play against, and he wasn't a nozzle about it. I just had no idea Aiakos had a harpoon (which he would have missed with had I used a Druid to pop smoke for me), and had no idea that Skarre had Sac Strike. To be fair, I wouldn't have thought up the scenario where she used it on Darragh.
Thing is, I should have just lost immediately anyways, with the Helldiver appearing close enough to Skarre to get some Focus, then getting Dark Guidance'd and boosting his attack to hit Krueger with a Headbutt. After that, it would have been easy to finish poor old Krueger off.
After talking with Scott some, he told me that he thought that the Bloodtrackers weren't best used to kill the Bane Cavalry. Instead, I should have run a bunch of them to surround Krueger. If they surrounded him, the Helldiver couldn't have walked up and headbutted me.
If I had gotten the Druids to pop smoke for Krueger, I probably would have won.
At any rate, I was somewhat proud of my play. I had a really devastating turn against Cryx that Scott didn't see coming, and if Krueger had by some miracle survived, I would likely have been able to win easily enough. Definitely some things I could have done better though, including getting the Bloodtrackers more centrally located so the Kraken really has to work hard to kill Ghetto or the Stalker.
EDIT: Scott just sent me a message via Twitter, telling me that I should have won, since Aiakos had needed to use his jump move to get in range of Krueger, which is apparently not allowed if Krueger's feat has affected him (-2 SPD). Whereas I agree that that would have almost certainly allowed me to win the game, I also think that it's my own fault. If I knew the rules better, I could have stopped him from making the move. So, whereas I may have won the game had we both been aware of the rule, I share in the blame equally. I don't think that Scott tried to cheat or anything like that. Good to know for next time :) /end edit
Tournament Results:
I ended up with 7th place at 4-2. I had the best record out of all the 4-2's, and it was later revealed that my Strength of Schedule was averaged at 4.33. That meant that my average opponent won 4.3 of his 6 games! They averaged higher than me, and I was 4-2!
As it turned out, I had the highest SoS out of anyone in the tournament. Only one other person had above a "4". So, I wasn't just playing against scrubs who were lucky to get where they were. I played against good players all day, and had pretty reasonable results.
I had made my goal at 4-2, but was a bit deflated nonetheless. I had gone 4-0, and was threatening the first big event I'd been to. I even had a really great opportunity to win that game and play in the finals had I been just a little bit better.
I ended up at 7th out of 64 (I think they said we had a couple people less than that from drops?), and the best result of the Colorado guys, though I thing James Brannan got 8th and another guy from our state (Brandon?) got 9th.
Funny to think that if I had won my Game 6, I'd have gotten 2nd place due to SoS :)
EDIT: Trevor (the judge and another Chain Attack podcast member) told me on the Facebook group (after apparently reading at least some of this report, and specifically the above statement) that I wouldn't have gotten 2nd if I had beat Scott, due to my SoS being lower due to Scott having a worse record. I still probably would have gotten 3rd or 4th though. Dream killer! /end edit
At any rate, our Colorado guys got 3rd place in the team aspect of the tournament.
I personally got the "best in faction" designation, though it didn't come with prize support or anything. Still nice to know that I had the best record with Circle.
I took a picture of my results sheet here, so that you can see how I did. Remember that my Game 2 actually should have had more AP destroyed because it was technically an assassination when he timed out. :)
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| Overall, not terrible for a guy who has been playing WM/H for about 5 months :) |
So, what's next for me?
Feast of Blades is in a month. I plan on playing most of the events there, including the Iron Gauntlet because hey - I have 3 fully painted armies! Otherwise, I do plan on going to the IMC again in 6 months. Maybe next time I can actually do better.
In the meantime, I plan on learning to play this game better. I need to. I had some good results, but my current skill level is not going to take me very far.
Thanks for reading it, hope you enjoyed the report! Let me know if you have comments or questions :)
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