Warmachine Batrep 40: Baldur1 and Wurmwood at Rocky Mountain Rumble Day 2

Day 2!

Howdy all,

This is Day 2 of Rocky Mountain Rumble. Here's the link to Day 1. 

So, I'm here on Day 2. Me, and 7 other players who are all probably way better than me. Here is the breakdown of armies present:

3x Khador
2x Trollbloods (Jay Larson is one of them)
1x Circle (me)
1x Menoth
1x Skorne

I was actually excited by this development. I was pretty familiar with all of the factions other than Menoth. Whereas I didn't have a ton of MK3 experience against each of these factions, I at least wouldn't be super surprised by what each faction can do.

My goal yesterday was to make it to the top 8. I succeeded.

And like the other top 8, I had a chance to win the whole thing. That was of course my goal, but I was also prepared to lose all three of my games. I just wanted some good games against some good players!


Here are my lists:

On Day 1, I  Played Wurmwood twice and Baldur1 once

In case you didn't know what a half-painted Circle army looks like

Game 4: Circle Orboros vs. Khador!

His Lists:

Butcher1 and Irusk2

Pairings Debate:

I was fairly sure he would drop Irusk2. People had been telling me that it's an auto-loss for Wurmwood if he played vs. Irusk2, and I decided to believe them.

Besides, Baldur was supposed to be my Khador drop, right? If my opponent made a mistake and dropped Butcher1 against me, my Druids would be super useful.

This was probably the easiest pairing debate of the tournament. Though in hindsight, I don't think Wurmwood is quite as screwed in this matchup as advertised.

I dropped Baldur1.

My opponent dropped Irusk2.

>> I won the roll to go first, and took first turn.

Pregame thoughts:

After reading Irusk's card, I was a little disheartened. He canceled out everything Baldur1 does well. He had Solid Ground to prevent knockdown. He had a feat that could ignore forests. He even had consistently high-arm 2" reach models who would essentially render my Druids useless in this matchup.

I would need to find a way to make myself relevant. I was relatively sure that whereas he may be able to kill my Wrath, he would have a very difficult time of doing so.

So, I'd just shove my Wrath down his throat and hope to win one zone while contesting the other.

Admittedly not a great plan. His list literally had mine trumped though. I honestly think that my Wurmwood list had MUCH more play into this than Baldur1. Good thing to remember for the future. Perhaps more on that later.

Circle Turn 1:

I ran forward. I made a mistake and meandered Baldur too far to the right, so that Solid Ground wouldn't actually get to all of my Druids. Whoops!

Bloodtrackers put Prey on the rightmost unit of Pikemen.

You can see him checking range with Behemoth against my Druids here, lol.

Khador Turn 1:

I was in for another surprise here: Irusk could place an AOE that granted cover.

He was able to put all 5 Cavalry and 12 Pikemen models in it. Maybe even the Great Bears.

So, that happened on the right. All of the models I wanted to target suddenly had cover. Wish I had known about that before :-p

The Cavalry models stood in front, blocking my Bloodtrackers' access to the now-DEF 16 Pikemen behind them.

Game keeps getting worse, lol. Wurmwood would actually love this situation right now.

Circle Turn 2:

I couldn't do much, but I had a few ideas. I wouldn't be able to safely put Baldur in the zone this turn, but I could at least bottleneck his models.

My goal this turn was essentially to kill a couple cavalry models and force Brandon to come out of his protective bubble. Despite the fact that his models could walk through each other, I could at least put up a scather to limit their advance.

Wrath went, aimed, and boosted a shot at one of the Cavalry. He managed to hit, then boosted damage and killed it. That left a 5" lightning scather up in front of the entire blob of models.

Megalith went up and sent a boosted Earth Spikes into another Cavalry model, but rolled pants for damage, only getting like 2 boxes on it.

I wasted clock shooting with Bloodtrackers. No damage.

Baldur advanced and POPPED HIS FEAT. If Brandon wanted to get much done next turn, he'd have to work really hard for it, and really expose some of his infantry.

Brandon said that if I hadn't popped my feat, he thought he could have killed Megalith. Yikes, glad I popped it when I did.

Khador Turn 2:

Brandon mostly decided to stay where he was. He did move the leftmost Pikemen up to screen Irusk, who toed into the corner of the zone.

That was really just about it. He shifted around some, but mostly just stayed where he was.

Irusk scored a point.

Score: 1-0, advantage Khador.

Not feeling great right now, I won't lie.

Circle Turn 3:

I would need to stop the scoring in the left zone, and score for myself in the right zone if I had any shot at winning this game.

So, the mostly-useless Druids advanced and put two of their number into the left zone, putting up clouds so that the Pikes wouldn't be able to see through them to charge the other Druids behind, or something.

Wrath stood still and shot at another Cavalry model. Instead of hitting his boosted roll (needed an 8 or 9), he missed and it scattered way off the mark.

Blackclad walked up and got about 8 Pikemen in his spray. Needing 5's to hit and 6's to force a tough check, he managed to miss almost all of them. Brandon failed all of his tough rolls this round, which means that out of 8 Pikes, I only wounded 2 of them. My dice didn't really treat me super awesome this turn haha :)

Megalith managed to kill another Cavalry model using Earth Spikes I believe.

I killed some clock with the Bloodtrackers, failing to do a single point of damage. Cover on non-prey targets is BRUTAL for them as it turns out.

Baldur advanced into the zone and put a forest directly in front of the blob of troops. Whereas I didn't expect it to slow Brandon down on his feat turn, it would at least force him to pop his feat so that my forests would be more meaningful in the rest of the game.

So, I killed another 3 models. 4 models down, 40+ to go :)

I did score at least.

Score: 1-1.

I believe that Behemoth shot the objective last turn, but failed to kill it.

Khador Turn 3:

Great Bears charged in from behind the rest of the infantry, and managed to kill my Blackclad on the right and a few Bloodtrackers.

Brandon made a small mistake this turn by then getting distracted and charging Irusk at the two Druids in the zone. They both died, and he POPPED HIS FEAT.

It's a fatal flaw I have in this game - I always forget that sometimes a caster can do more than play master manipulator from the back lines. In this case, Irusk was able to kill both blocking Druids, tearing down their cloud wall.

That allowed the Pikemen behind him to charge through Irusk and jam up the rest of my Druids. I think they mostly missed their swings, but they did manage to hem me in pretty tight, even with Mirage.

The mistake then showed its face: Irusk was outside of the 10" command range of the big blob on the right, and they weren't able to charge through each other.

They still managed to jam up my remaining Bloodtrackers pretty good.

Behemoth killed the objective.

Irusk scored again.

Score: 3-1, advantage Khador.

I have to say - I was very impressed with this army. It was giving me definite problems, but Brandon not only played it well, but the list itself did a lot of really cool stuff.

Circle Turn 4:

It was at this point that I started to look for a way to win outside of scenario. I was behind in a big way, and while I could buy one more turn, I would definitely struggle to hold out on either side.

I'd killed my clock too much, and I would almost certainly lose the time battle.

That left assassination.

I was contemplating just that, when I discovered another nasty thing about Irusk2: his feat reduces your SPD by 3. So, I wasn't going to assassinate him this turn.

Instead, I focused on clearing a hole for myself to assassinate through on my next turn, if I could get that far.

Before I forgot, I shifted a Stone into the corner of the left zone to contest it once more.

The Blackclad and Megalith managed to kill most of the jamming Pikemen.

Bloodtrackers actually did some work this turn, with Baldur's assistance. Between them and Baldur, I managed to kill most of the Pikemen and another Cavalry model.

I think I actually managed to clear the right zone again, though that wasn't really my main goal.

Score: 3-2, advantage Khador.

I think Baldur put a forest up in an annoying place somewhere. Sorry you can't see it. :)

Khador Turn 4:

I could tell Brandon felt pretty comfortable with the game state. What's more: I couldn't really blame him.

He backed Irusk up some, and sent in all of his models on both sides. Most of my Bloodtrackers died, and Megalith (and one Druid!) managed to survive, but were again jammed.

Behemoth decided to move to the left zone as insurance that Megalith wouldn't be able to perma-hold the left zone. I think it was Behemoth who killed my Stone.

Irusk scored again.

Score: 4-2, advantage Khador.




Circle Turn 5:

I didn't have much clock left, and my only real shot was an assassination.

Baldur ran over to make sure he could force Megalith.

Megalith trampled over 5 Pikemen, killing a few. He shot a boosted Earth Spikes at Irusk, hit, and spiked some good damage on him.

I had trampled in such a way that my Wrath could get line of sight to Irusk.

He walked up, shot at Irusk, and hit.

I needed a 13 to kill Irusk.

I boosted (of course).

and....

This is a 15. I only needed a 13, but I wasn't going to complain!

... I spiked damage and smote Irusk where he stood!

Wrath hadn't taken damage the whole game. So much for getting him in there, lol.

Result: Win via assassination for Circle!

Post-game thoughts:

Well... suffice it to say that I was very surprised at this outcome. I won't say I've never rolled well before, but getting a couple spiked damage rolls when I needed them in order to win the game as time expired was something I don't think I've ever done.

Essentially, I got lucky. I won't say that I didn't "deserve" the win or something - you can decide that for yourself. I will say that I got REALLY DAMN LUCKY. 

I think I needed a couple 13's on damage to kill DEF 15 Irusk.

Anyways, I've lost to that sort of luck before, and I felt for Brandon. However, I think he could have been safer about it. If I had no LOS to Irusk, it wouldn't have been possible at all. This isn't kicking my opponent while he's down, it's just me defending myself a little bit.

I was able to create a situation where I could shoot Irusk by recognizing my own impending doom. I forcused on killing his models on the left so that I could create a chance to win. Whereas the odds were definitely with Brandon, at least I was able to give myself some chance to win after all of the surprises I was barraged with.

That said, I think that I could do better if I played against this list again. I actually think I should have just put my Wrath on the right and tried to screen it with Druids, while Baldur, Megalith, and the Bloodtrackers tried to take the left zone. If the cover thing went onto the Pikes on the left, I'd still be able to charge them with Bloodtrackers.

But, who knows what Brandon would have done had I played that way. Probably something really great.

I wanted to mention too that Brandon was a GREAT opponent. He took his loss with equanimity and was very gracious. He shook my hand immediately after I rolled my last roll. Great guy, and really skilled player. I hope we get to play again sometime.

Tournament situation:

All three Khador players lost in the first round, as well as one of the Troll players.

That left:

• Vlad Petunin's Menoth (Reznik1? and Severius2)
• Joe Marion's Skorne (Morghoul1 and Rasheth) - he actually played Morghoul1 all of his first 5 games and was list locked on his sixth, haha!
• Jay Larson's Trollbloods (Ragnor and Grim)
• Adam Tricola's Circle (that's me!)

I tried not to hope for a specific pairing. None of them seemed very inviting anyways, lol.

Pairings were announced for the semi-finals, and I found out I would be on the stream table.

Game 5: Circle Orboros vs. Vlad's Protectorate of Menoth!!

He had Severius2 and one of the Rezniks. I wish I had taken a picture of his lists, sorry folks!

Essentially, Severius2 had Awareness, which would completely negate Wurmwood's shenanigans. 

Since there was no Purification list, I decided to just go with Baldur. It wasn't a difficult decision, once I read Severius' card.

>I dropped Baldur1.

> Vlad dropped Severius2.

>>Vlad won the roll to go first and chose the side of the board with a convenient wall for Sevvy to stand behind.

His list essentially had the following:

- Character jack with a spray
- 2x Heavy Jacks with a single high-POW shot.
- 1x arc node Light
- Kell
- Alten Ashley
- Lots of support units

Pre-game thoughts:

I actually had an immediate plan. There was a great forest kind of equidistant from my deployment zone to the flag on the right. Baldur would be able to create forests for himself to forest walk, and he'd be able to reach the right flag on Turn 2 and start scoring.

Vlad is a great player - one of the best in Colorado. He'd won a few big tournaments already, and was obviously in contention in this tournament as well.

I'd need to start scoring ASAP, because time would likely favor him. This would be my 4th game ever against Menoth, all of them against Vlad. I hadn't had an easy game against him yet, and I figured that he'd find a way to assassinate me before long if I didn't just go all out.

Circle Turn 1:

I ran up. Baldur gave the Bloodtrackers Stone Skin, and put up Solid Ground. He also made a forest where he was standing, then used Forest Walker to get into the middle forest and within 12" of the flag.

I think the Bloodtrackers put Prey on one of the shooty jacks. 

Menoth Turn 1:

Vlad also ran up.

Sevvy POPPED HIS FEAT and killed a ton of my Bloodtrackers. No real way to avoid that feat, lol.

He was wise and ran Alten Ashley away a little bit. I'd have likely been able to kill him this turn if he hadn't.

Those little fire tokens are supposed to be 4" AOEs. Vlad didn't have enough of them though.

Circle Turn 2:

I dropped Stone Skin on the Trackers and put it on the Wrath (eventually).

Wrath walked up and shot a Heavy with his gun. Apparently the jack could camp one focus and just ignore all damage on the first hit it takes. Lol, woah!

I toyed with using Megalith to boost an Earth Spikes into Kell, but decided I didn't want him to be on fire. Instead, he walked up and put up his Animus to cause rough terrain.

My Blackclad advanced and tried to use his spray to kill Kell. I think he hit, but rolled poorly on damage. Doh!

Druids appritioned, then advanced to screen Baldur.

Baldur grew another forest on the flag, then used Forest Walker to get onto the flag. He then POPPED HIS FEAT. I was almost certain that nothing would be able to get to the flag to contest it next turn.

Menoth Turn 2:

I was right - nothing could get to my flag.

Vlad killed off most, if not all, of the remaining Bloodtrackers.

He couldn't do a whole lot else because of my feat.

His Light jack (also an Arc Node) ran up behind the wall closest to me. This somehow facilitated the death of my Blackclad over there as well - I think Ashes to Ashes was arced into them or something.

I think that Megalith took a few points of damage from Kell.

Alten walked up and shot the Wrath, giving him grievous wounds.

I scored a point.

Score: 1-0, advantage Circle.

Awesome, I scored!

Circle Turn 3:

I needed to prevent Vlad from contesting me again, if possible. If I could do that and stay alive, I'd almost certainly win.

Easier said than done of course :)

The pressure needed to continue to be exerted.

I measured the distance between one of the heavy jacks and the Book, which had "no knockdown" up. The Book was just outside of 5", which meant I'd be able to knock down the jack.

That was a BFD, because that jack also had the ability up that lets him walk away after the first hit he takes.

A Blackclad on the right went first and shot the objective with Hunter's Mark, barely hitting (he'd have missed against the Heavy).

Wrath charged the objective, hit it for 7 (rolled a "4" on 3 dice for damage!), and the AOE 4 knocked the heavy jack next to it down before it could walk away after being hit.

The Wrath then proceeded to use all 4 fury to barely kill the Heavy.

Megalith walked up to the wall and used a boosted Earth Spikes to kill Alten Ashley.

Druids advanced and shot the closest couple models to my flag. I think it was a Choir member and something else. /shrug

Baldur camped 3 - I figured he was safe enough.

I scored another point.

Score: 2-0, advantage Circle

Not much close enough to my flag to contest it.

Menoth Turn 3:

Vlad recognized his dilemma. He essentially needed to assassinate Baldur this turn, or auto-lose the game.

The character jack with all the fire charged Megalith, but missed a swing, and left Megalith on about half life.

We actually called the judge over to make sure we did the next part right - his Arc Node ran past Megalith and took a free strike. Megalith hit, didn't damage anything important, but the effect on his fists caused a -3 to SPD and DEF.

The judge ruled that the amount of distance you can walk is determined at the beginning of your movement, and therefore the SPD decrease would not kick in until after his full initial advance. It makes sense, but was interesting that it came up at all.

The Arc Node ended within 10" of Baldur.

Sevvy cast Awareness so that he had LOS to Baldur, and someone else gave him eyeless sight or something. I wasn't sure why that was necessary. Maybe he didn't actually do that this turn, but needed it against my Bloodtrackers? I don't know, lol. Go watch the video of this game once it comes out.

Sevvy then shot a couple boosted Hex Blasts into Baldur, causing him to transfer everything to Megalith, who died from the damage.

I had 13 or so boxes of health left, and no transfer targets.

The remaining heavy jack advanced, and due to Awareness being cast was able to see Baldur. He had a double-boosted shot at Baldur, which, if it hit, would need a "13" to kill him. Ironic that I was in the same position last game.

The Heavy missed his shot though. He needed a 9 to hit, and missed.

I scored again.

Score: 3-0, advantage Circle.

I need to be more mindful of arc nodes.

Circle Turn 4:

It was an easy matter of activating the Wrath, killing the objective easily (even with all snakeeyes it would have been dead in 2 hits) for a point, then ending my turn to score again.

The game ended.

Results: Win for Circle Orboros!!

Post-game thoughts:

I was, and still am, very proud of this game. I was able to execute my plan each turn, and forced Vlad into a low-percentage assassination attempt.

That said, if he had kept the Book within 5" of his jack, the game would likely have been pretty different. It could have walked away from the Wrath and threatened my flag. Maybe I could have pushed him back with Druids, but maybe not.

Also, I exposed Megalith too much, and without a transfer target. 3 transfers would have been plenty, but because he was able to get to Megalith with his character jack, I didn't have enough health to transfer against.

This was actually my fastest game of the tournament. I ended with like 30 minutes of clock, which meant I got to take a break. There was a crowd around Jay Larson's table as he faced Skorne. I just went and sat on some stairs and took a break.

Vlad was a great opponent, and though I could tell he was disappointed at his loss, he wasn't a poor sport about it. That said, I'm sure he'll wreck my face in our next game :)

EDIT: This game was recorded, and has a video up at L2Wargame. Here's the link.

Tournament Situation:

FIRST, I was really excited. Who could have expected me to go 5-0 up to this point? I'd gotten very lucky to be in a situation where I could win the whole thing! All my opponents had been great up to that point, and I'd learned a LOT along the way. Really the ideal situation. Whereas I would absolutely be disappointed if I lost, I was just pumped to be there at all!

I would be playing against either Trolls or Skorne in the final. That made me happy, because whereas I didn't know what kind of shenanigans each caster would have for me, I at least knew most of what each army would be able to throw at me. I wouldn't be playing a mystery faction in the finals, which was a very comforting thought.

As it happened, Jay Larson managed a win against his opponent, which meant I'd be playing against Trolls in the finals.

Game 6, THE FINALS: Circle Orboros vs. Trollbloods!!

His lists:

Ragnor and Grim2, both casters I had no real experience against.

Pairings Debate:

Initially, I had intended to drop Wurmwood against Trolls if that came up. However, after looking at Grim2's card, I saw that he had Magesight and a feat that I didn't fully understand. I knew it had something to do with making his army better at shooting, but it was beyond me how he would employ his feat.

I didn't see a great reason not to play Baldur, so that's what I decided to do. Up to this point, I hadn't lost a single game with that list. It couldn't fail me now, could it? :)

> I dropped Baldur1
> Jay surprisingly (to me) dropped Ragnor.

Aside: In his podcast, Jay said that he thought the presence of Magesight as a spell kind of scared me into dropping Baldur. Of course that played a part in my decision, but after having already thought about my Irusk2 game some, I figured that an ability like that wasn't going to be a deal breaker on its own. Just because people could see my tree doesn't mean they could kill it.

The thing was, I wasn't sure how that ability would interact with his feat and the rest of Jay's army. Without a solid grasp of how the feat worked and what it did for the models in question, I didn't feel like it was wise to take an immobile, auto-hit-able caster like Wurmwood. At least with Baldur, he would have a chance to miss against him :)

>>I won the roll to go first, and took first turn.

Pre-game thoughts:

I liked this scenario. I felt that I would be able to contest one flag, and push models off the other with my Druids to score points. Jay would struggle to kill my buffed Wrath, and the Wrath would be able to kill his beasts easily enough in return.

My goal was to make a mess of things on the right-side flag, while quietly pushing models off the flag with my Druids on the left and scoring.

Circle Turn 1:

I ran up. I just went ahead and put Stone Skin on the Wrath to start. No need to reduce the Bloodtrackers' DEF.

Bloodtrackers went up a little too far. Really, it was much too far. Not great placement for them in hindsight. I just wasn't aware of what the Fire Eaters could do.

So far my placement is pretty good.

Trolls Turn 1:

Jay used his Feralgeist to set his Fire Eaters on fire by targeting the feralgeist with the Pyre Troll's AOE.

Once they were on fire, they got an additional dice on their spray attacks, and killed my whole front line of Bloodtrackers.

Otherwise he just advanced.

A Bouncer and the Mauler advanced on the left, away from the rest of the shenanigans at the wall on the right.

Should be interesting...

Circle Turn 2:

I just wanted to continue to make things crazy on the right, while pushing the Bouncer and Mauler away on the left.

Druids advanced, and I messed up my activation with them. Only about 4 of them got to actually push, because I didn't push in the correct order. But, the Mauler and Bouncer were reasonably far away.

Bloodtrackers just kept a standoff distance this turn. The wall kind of foiled their plans. I need to get better at planning against walls/cover with this list, lol. That said, I did roll some pretty awful rolls.

The Wrath had to run this turn to get over a wall of his own. Again, poor planning on my part.

Baldur grew a forest between himself and the models on the right. I decided this wouldn't be a good turn to feat. Next turn would likely be much better.

Not really doing well on the right. I think I managed to put a couple boxes on one of the Fire Eaters. Poor rolling on my part, though he also did a good job of guarding most of his models.

Trolls Turn 2:

Jay was able to clear away most of my Bloodtrackers with the Fire Eaters.

I believe that my Blackclad, who I had believed was within 4" of the flag, was actually just outside of 4", so Jay was able to claim that flag.

The Bouncer on the left charged my Blackclad there, but missed his initial swing. He then put up his animus, which wouldn't let me push him. Doh! Would have been wiser to keep that Blackclad farther back - if the bouncer couldn't charge, he couldn't have been able to put his animus up.

Ragnor advanced a little bit and POPPED HIS FEAT. I'd be hitting with one less damage dice for a turn.

He scored a point on the right, to my eternal shame.

Score: 1-0, advantage Trolls.

I'd never played against a Bouncer until this game. Why can't my Watchers be as good as the Bouncer? It's not even close, and for the same points! (Both ARM 21, but the Bouncer can get to POW 18 or something, with 3 Fury. and 2" reach Watcher gets to POW 12, with 2 Fury and .5" reach. Same Animus. 

Circle Turn 3:

I wouldn't be able to do much this turn with his feat up, so I decided to keep it safe this turn and just get rid of both of our feats.

Wrath advanced to within 4" of the flag, but just outside of Mulg's threat range, assuming Mulg was fully within Baldur's feat. He was able to shoot one Fire Eater to death.

Druids pushed the Mauler WAY backward.

Baldur advanced to a bit closer, put a forest in front of himself and Megalith, and POPPED HIS FEAT.

Score: 1-0, advantage Trolls.

At this point, I had kind of burned a lot of my clock. Not awesome.

Trolls Turn 3:

Jay was pretty restricted by the feat. He killed more of my infantry, and the Bouncer on the left clubbed a hapless Druid before using his Animus again.

Mulg went behind the wall again to stay outside of the Wrath's threat. I believe he measured it perfectly so that I couldn't get to him with the Wrath.

Not much else happened.

Score: 1-0, advantage Trolls.

At least my feat made his feat not hurt me so badly.

Circle Turn 4:

Megalith used a free charge from Baldur to hit the Bouncer on the left and spiked a little bit of damage, killing it in one round.

Druids used their pushes to keep the Mauler farther away.

I think one of them actually pushed Mulg backward as well, just outside of being able to charge the Wrath.

Wrath aimed and shot at a weaponmaster solo. He boosted to hit, needing a 5, and MISSED. Sigh. Lots of rolls like that this game. Things that would have made a difference, but just ... never quite panned out.

Baldur continued to be paranoid and put a forest in front of him.

Blackclad was on the flag on the left, and scored.

Score: 1-1.

Things are looking up!

Trolls Turn 4:

Jay charged my Wrath with his Bouncer, after buffing him up. He spiked some ridiculous damage, and did like 15 points, and was still able to put his animus up. Sigh.

Horgle ran up and punched Megalith, also contesting the flag on the left.

I think a Druid or two died this turn too. Not 100% on that though.

Score: 1-1.

This game is a slog!

Circle Turn 5:

I was starting to really hurt on time. My inexperience was showing at this point. I just couldn't spend the time I needed to plan.

Wrath decided to EPIC FAIL and not kill the Bouncer with all 4 of his fury.

Megalith killed Horgle, which made the Pyre Troll go wild or something.

Druids again pushed the Mauler backwards.

I fully intended to put a forest between Megalith and the Mauler to deny line of sight, but forgot in my haste not to clock out.

I scored again!

Score: 2-1, advantage Circle.

We were disallowed to pause our clocks for ANY reason. So, I wonder how much of my clock I burned taking pictures, lol.

Trolls Turn 5:

Mulg charged into the Wrath, but due to the Pyre Troll not being available to buff Mulg with his animus, he was a pedestrian POW 20 or somesuch. The Wrath was very much alive. Even after the Bouncer swung, he was fully functional.

Because the forest wasn't blocking line of sight like I had intended, the Mauler charged Megalith and finished him off.

Other models moved in to try to contest my flag. Only a couple actually managed to though.

Score: 2-1, advantage Circle.

Circle Turn 6:

I had 5 minutes on my clock. But, I felt I had the advantage if I could move quickly enough.

The Wrath punched Mulg, knocking the Bouncer and Mulg down. I again failed this turn, and while I killed the Bouncer, Mulg was left alive.

The Druids pushed some models away from the flag, and managed to score again.

I would have positioned Baldur to get into the objective in my next turn, and put a forest between the Mauler and the rest of my models, but the fact was that the Wrath had swung too poorly two turns in a row, and that I had about 7 seconds left on my clock. So, I ended my turn to get another CP, and shook Jay's hand.

Good game.

Results: Loss for Circle Orboros!

Post-game thoughts:

Sigh. I enjoyed this game and felt that I had several strong plays. Keeping Jay's models from charging me and being in the places he wanted them to be took a level of skill that I didn't really think I had. I'm not saying I'm really good now suddenly or anything, but in a scenario where I just essentially didn't even get to use my Bloodtrackers.

Pushing the Mauler back every turn was fun, and funny! In the last turn, Jay had put dig in on the Mauler, but I somehow rolled a 10 to hit with a Druid, pushing him back and (per the Judge) taking away the dig in effect.

I think this game was very winnable. If the Wrath had killed the Bouncer like he should have on Turn 5, that would have been um, nice. I wouldn't have wasted an attack on him on Turn 6, and maybe he'd have been able to finish off Mulg.

That said, targeting that Bouncer at all was a huge mistake. I should have put everything on Mulg until he died, THEN finished off the Bouncer. It's fairly obvious. But the pressures of the clock got to me, and I made a snap (read: poor) decision.

I also made other mistakes toward the end. Not putting the forest there to protect Megalith (he'd have survived if I'd done that) was a HUGE blunder.

This just tells me that I need more practice with the clock. I need to get faster, and get more familiar with my army. It's hard to play at a high level and make good decisions when you're still trying to figure out how to play your own army. I mean, this was literally the first time I'd played this scenario at any point.

EDIT: This game was recorded, and has a video up at the L2Wargame site. Here's the link.

Tournament Results:

I was nervous: my round 4 opponent had dropped after our game, and we were only using SoS from Day 2. At least Vlad had won his last game. And obviously, Jay had won all three of his games.

I ended up in a SoS draw with a couple other people who were 2-1 on the day.

Tie breakers were CP.

I had 10 CP for the day, and the next closest guy was 8.

So,

I TOOK SECOND PLACE AT A MAJOR MASTER'S TOURNAMENT!!

Silver medal and a $100 prepaid credit card is pretty good loot!

Post-tournament thoughts:

Well...

I was pretty happy. Sure, I really wanted to win. But this result exceeded my wildest expectation. Who would guess that I'd be able to do this well, and even challenge an internet legend like Jay Larson?

But, while the result is good, there are LOTS of things I need to work on as a player. I think I identified most of those earlier. I don't need to talk about them now. But, I need to get better. Lots and lots of room to improve.

I did get a lot of funny looks when I told people I dropped Baldur1 4 times and Wurmwood only twice. It was like people didn't realize you could win with anything other than Wurmwood. :)

A few other things: this tournament was really well-run. The pairings were up quickly, the terrain was good, and the locale was pleasant (it was in the back room of a brewery). I give James huge props for how he ran this tournament. I'll be back next year for sure!

Alright, this has been a long post. Sorry, not going to proofread. Just need to get this out there. Hope you enjoyed :)