Hello all! Today I've got a tournament report from a couple weeks back - I've been pretty slow at releasing content lately mostly because of time. Not sure if you remember, but in my initial "I'm back" posts, I did mention that I may not have as much time as I used to have to write these things up. It's true, and I'm also trying to keep myself from burning out. So, I've slowed down some. At any rate, my last tournament (link here) was a frustrating event in the sense that I did not play up to the standard I usually hold myself. My decisions were poor for the most part, and this event I really wanted to correct that.
Tacticon was a good opportunity to do just that. It's a local con, and this year was the first time it would be held in Colorado Springs, which is about an hour or so drive south of Denver. Traditionally I've always gone to Tacticon for a weekend of 40k and Fantasy, but those games are (currently) dead to me, and Warmachine is my focus.
Tournament Scene:
I drove down with a group of guys from Denver, and we were somewhat disappointed when we saw that that Colorado Springs players were for the most part MIA. We had expected a qualifying event on Saturday, followed by a 4-game Masters event on Sunday. Instead, we decided to play the 4-game Masters event on Saturday, followed by not coming down on Sunday.
16 players total. I don't really know the breakdown of armies. Here's what I remember:
2x Circle (myself included)
1x Retribution
2x Khador
2x Legion
2x Mercs
1x Cygnar
... there were obviously more, but I don't remember what they were.
I was taking my Baldur1/Baldur2 pairing in an attempt to field test my Baldur2 list against shooty armies.
My lists:
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| Same old Baldur1. Someone lent me WE&SJ for Baldur2. |
His lists:
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| Retribution is a faction I tend to struggle against for several reasons. Bleck. |
I quickly learned that Chad had only played a couple games of MK3 Warmachine and was relatively new to the game as well (he'd played a few months of MK2). That just meant I didn't know which list he would drop.
It was the "boobs" scenario, and my Baldur1 list is pretty good for that one. However, I felt that Baldur2 would be a great drop into Ossyan (or, at least a great test for the list). And to be honest, I felt like it would be best to get my Baldur2 drop out of the way so I had the option to play Baldur1 the rest of the day if necessary.
I was actually fairly certain that Chad would drop Ossyan.
>> I dropped Baldur2
>> Chad dropped... Kaelyssa?
>>> I won the roll to go first, and gave Chad first turn.
Pre-game thoughts:
Well... this would be interesting. Baldur2 against more a combined arms force than a truly shooty list. I don't know enough about Retribution to know if Ossyan is good against Circle or not, but I WAS certainly surprised.
So, Baldur2 would allow me to DOMINATE one zone, and hopefully barely contest the other zone enough that I could win via scenario. That's why I wanted to go second - the chance to score first was a big deal.
I also really liked the terrain on my side of the board. Getting a huge forest in the left zone and a wall in the right zone meant that I could hide out behind both and mess around even more with scenario.
Deployment:
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| Should be interesting to see how the water + obstruction between the zones would affect things. |
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| I wish I knew what any of his stuff did! Haha, reading cards is SOOO different than experiencing the effects in-game. |
Chad had put his two big units on either flank, and I had deployed to keep from having to deal with the Sentinels.
He moved up, and somewhat cautiously. Upkeeps went onto his models, and the turn passed to me.
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| Pretty obvious I would be going for the right zone, right? :) |
Circle Turn 1:
I advanced as well!
Ghetto trampled up 9" and put up Spiny Growth.
Feral warped for armor and ran up.
Baldur ensured he'd be within 5" of the right zone on the next turn, then put up a wall in front of the Feral and Ghetto, and put Roots of the Earth (RotE) on the Feral.
Megalith advanced and put RotE on Ghetto.
Sentry Stones kind of just stayed outside of the shooting threat ranges, but also kept to the left. They'd be my zone-contesters. I'd never really used them in that way before (as in, I'd never used them as not supporting the bulk of my forces - they don't generally operate independently often, though they contest zones really well).
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| Chad's models were stacked pretty heavily on the left, and the water was going to make it hard for him to get his jacks to the right zone. Theoretically at least :) |
Chad did a general advance, but only got a single model into my own zone.
He managed to kill all of my Mannikins.
His jacks started to shift toward the right zone.
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| Only one model to contest the zone... excellent. |
Circle Turn 2:
I needed to dominate the zone on the right and contest the zone on the left. My other objective was to position my own models so that they could threaten the entirety of the right zone, while staying outside of the major threat ranges.
Ghetto trampled up to the top right area of the zone and the Feral followed him. Both put up their armor buffs.
Megalith trampled up and used a boosted Crevasse to kill the model in the zone, and the ensuing spray killed at least one more.
Baldur meandered up to toe the zone, then POPPED HIS FEAT. Everyone was at +3 ARM and couldn't really be moved by anything.
Sentry Stones stayed aloof and I put my two Mannikins into the left zone to contest.
WE & SJ stayed mostly where they were - I wanted another threat to Chad's models if he got too close.
I dominated the zone for 2 CP.
Score: 2-0, advantage Circle.
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| Mannikins decided not to spray the Sentinels. No need to trigger vengeance. |
Chad knew he needed to score this turn and to contest my zone as much as he could. So that's what he did.
One of the jacks charged Megalith, but couldn't quite finish him off. ARM 23 FTW!
The rifle guys ran up and spread out in the right zone.
Kaelyssa walked into the left zone to dominate it.
Sentinels killed my Mannikins and attempted to threaten my Sentry Stones for next turn.
Chad scored two CP.
Score: 2-2.
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| I think that's Discordia on the left side. |
Circle Turn 3:
I essentially just needed to clear my zone in order to win the game. Chad had put two of his jacks well within my reach.
Megalith and the Feral combined to kill one of the jacks. Megalith used most of his own fury to get a crevasse off, which killed a few more infantry.
Snapjaw charged up and killed the other jack.
Between tramples and Crevasses a spray from the Blackclad, and a shot from Alten, I cleared the right zone. Baldur even put up a wall for Ghetto and the Feral.
Mannikins got themselves tangled up in the leading Sentinels and into the zone to contest.
Score: 4-2, advantage Circle.
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| Not much left to contest my own zone. |
Retribution Turn 4:
Chad would essentially be able to contest my zone with a few mechanics, dominate his own zone for 2, and lose on my own turn via scenario.
So, we just called it here, 6-4.
Game Results: Win via scenario for Circle Orboros!!
Post-game thoughts:
I think this game would have been pretty different if the Sentinels had been centrally deployed to counter where my battle group was. As things stood, my battle group was largely unharmed and uncontested the whole game.
Terrain was very helpful to me in this game. I could hide my Sentry Stones on the left to keep tying up the Sentinels, and the water + obstruction was really obnoxious for Chad, who had to work hard to get his jacks where he wanted them.
Baldur1 would absolutely have been a better drop against this Kaelyssa list, but who knows about Ossyan? I'm happy I played Baldur2 here, since it allowed me to try my hand against lots of infantry, something I could imagine he might struggle against.
Chad was a great opponent, and I was very glad to have gotten to play against him. He used to play Fantasy too, but now that that's not an option, Warmachine is a good alternative. Hope he keeps playing!
Tournament Scene:
The guys in my car were all undefeated, which meant one of us would have to play against another.
Still undefeated were:
2x Circle (myself included)
2x Mercs
1x Khador
2x Legion?
Who knows who else, lol :)
As things happened, I would be paired against someone from Denver.
Game 2: Circle vs. Legion of Everblight!
His lists:
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| Never played against Thagrosh2 before. Not that I thought Mike would drop him. |
Pairings Debate:
I didn't really know, to be honest. I assumed that Mike would take Abby2 against me, and I was very aware that her feat essentially negated Baldur1's feat.
The question was, could Baldur1 still beat her? I didn't think that the Wrath would die in one round to the beasts at his disposal, which made me believe that I should be able to win it via scenario, feat or not.
This is opposed to my Baldur2 list, which I was still pretty new with. I think that Baldur2 might be even better into Abby2, as the ARM 22/23 spam every turn would really make Abby2 struggle, as well as the high DEF of my beasts.
I decided on Baldur1, though in hindsight, it seems likely that Baldur2 would have been a wiser drop.
>> I dropped Baldur1.
>> Mike dropped... Thagrosh2.
>>> I won the roll to go first, and took the side of the board with a massive 40k hill and a huge impassible obstruction.
Pre-game thoughts:
Haha, 0 for 2 on guessing my opponent's drop. Whoops!
Thags would be a lot easier to play against than Abby2. Mike was expecting me to make the right choice (Baldur2), so he dropped his list that could better deal with Baldur2. Baldur1 was... less ideal for him. Since most of his models were standing, my feat could be potentially devastating to them if I planned it right.
My plan was just to see how the game progressed. Killing the objective, controlling flags, etc. would be a very interesting endeavor, with a huge forest in the middle of the table. I planned trying to win via scenario though. And to do that, I needed to wipe out as many solos as possible, ASAP.
Deployment:
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| Wrath is canted off to the right side of the objective to keep his freedom of mobility. I put Druids on the right there to push things off the right flag, as I figured the main fighting would be on the left flag. |
Mike ran up. Typhon on the right side of the forest, Carnivean on the left side. I was surprised how spread out his models were.
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| Bloodtrackers and War Spears put Prey on each other. |
Circle Turn 1:
I also moved up, albeit far more cautiously.
Terrain that looked good (and was good, for games that wasn't Warmachine) made putting models down difficult. Here are some Mannikins trying to stand in the right place for their sprays. One of them is actually ON a tuft of grass!
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| It was kind of fun to see Mannikins get all animae. |
Mostly, my army got into position to grab flags in the next turn without getting punched too hard during my own turn.
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| Wrath ran pretty far up! |
Legion Turn 2:
Mike decided to sacrifice Typhon this turn, since he'd get him back via Thag's feat anyways.
So, Typhon charged the Wrath, but did not kill it.
War Spears and Hellmouth combined to kill a couple of Bloodtrackers, though most of them were out of range.
I believe that Mike got unlucky and didn't quite manage to kill either Sentry Stone. :-/
Not much else!
Circle Turn 2:
There wasn't much protecting the right flag, though I'd be unable to take the left flag.
This turn was a chance for me to get up on attrition, if possible.
Bloodtrackers managed to kill off about half of the War Spears.
Mannikins and Druids combined to kill the Succubus and remaining solos off the table.
Druids also managed to knock Typhon down.
Wrath advanced to within 10" of the Seraph, then easily punched Typhon to death. He had enough fury left over that he also put up his Animus (boosted magic attack rolls vs. models within 10" of him)
Blackclad advanced and put Hunter's Mark on the Seraph.
Megalith then charged the Seraph, boosted his first punch (hit), then pummeled the -3 DEF beast to death.
I intentionally did not pop my feat this turn - I only needed one more turn, and I would be able to auto-win by popping my feat without anything in range to contest the right flag.
One of my Sentry Stones managed to score on the right flag.
This turn took like 30 minutes, lol.
Score: 1-0, advantage Circle.
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| Druids did some good work this turn! |
Legion Turn 3:
Mike had lost a lot of models last turn, and he wasn't quite sure how to proceed.
He eventually POPPED HIS FEAT and placed Typhon on the right, toward the flag, but not close enough to contest it.
Carnivean killed Megalith easily.
Warspears and Tentacles fought more with the Bloodtrackers.
I scored again.
Score: 2-0, advantage Circle.
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| Typhon's back! |
I could essentially auto-win this turn.
Shifting Stones teleported Baldur up toward the flag on the right. He put up Druid's Wrath, then POPPED HIS FEAT.
Druids advanced and, using Druids Wrath, knocked Typhon down.
Sentry Stones got out of the way and blocked all line of sight to Baldur.
Wrath trampled up to Typhon and, with his final fury, killed him AGAIN.
Unless Mike could find a way to kill DEF 18 Baldur with 2 transfers and behind a forest and under the feat, I would win by virtue of having nothing close enough to contest the flag.
I scored one on my turn, one on Mike's turn, and then just ended my own Turn 4 for a total of 5 CP.
The game ended.
Game Results: Win via scenario for Circle Orboros!!
Post-game thoughts:
The minute I saw our paired casters, I knew this game would be a tough one for Mike. Baldur1's feat is BRUTAL in some scenarios, and provided I could limit the Wrath's exposure to a single heavy each turn, I'd be able to hold him off long enough to score the points I needed to score.
One thing he may have done differently was bringing back his Seraph instead of Typhon. The Seraph could have at least contested my flag either of Mike's turns, even during my feat.
As it was, once I had killed off his solos, Mike didn't have much hope of contesting the right flag consistently enough to make it a close game. The classic strategy of killing everything on one side then feating for the win used to be Krueger2's bread and butter. Now Baldur1 can do it almost as well. :)
Tournament Scene:
My game was the last game to be played, and as such, we were paired almost immediately after. As things stood, the guys in my car had again done well. It was now down to the 4 players from Denver:
2x Circle (myself included)
2x Mercs
I really wanted to avoid a Circle mirror match. But I also wanted to avoid the other two players, who were a couple of the best players in our meta in Denver. No good choices to be found :)
Game 3: Circle Orboros vs. Mercenaries!
His Lists:
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| Rory's MacBain list was inspired by Baldur1's obnoxiousness a couple months earlier. |
Pairing Debate:
There wasn't much debate. I knew (for sure) that Rory would drop MacBain. I also knew that the MacBain list would probably ruin my Baldur2 list. Despite the fact that Rory had designed his list to specifically beat my Baldur1 list, I knew I didn't have much choice.
>> I dropped Baldur1
>> Rory dropped MacBain (whew, finally got one right!)
>>> Rory won the roll to go first and took first turn.
Pre-game thoughts:
First, the scenario was THE PIT. This is Baldur1's best scenario, and one I do not believe I have personally ever lost on.
A few things about this game: it had been built up for a few weeks, as Rory (who plays at my game shop the same nights I do) refused to play against me until "we met at a tournament". We'd dodged each other a couple other times, and in that time, Rory hadn't lost with MacBain. He played the hell out of it, but hadn't lost.
He's also one of the best players in our meta. He can speak confidently of winning any given tournament, and most people believe him. Lots of really high finishes at big events. The sort of player you'd prefer to play against in the finals.
His list was specifically engineered to keep me from using magic and shooting well. The Kayazy would be a very tough nut to crack, and Boomhowler could keep me from casting spells. The feat keeps most of his infantry alive the whole turn. I couldn't target Dahlia with living models. The list goes on. Essentially it's the perfect "YOU CAN'T" list. So much denial. Bleck :)
My goal this game was to essentially just do what Baldur does best: hang back and score while providing what support he could.
Deployment:
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| If this was 40k, I'd say we're fighting on a "wood planet". Not sure how else to explain the wood we're playing on. |
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| Bet you didn't want to see where his models are anyways! |
Mercs Turn 1:
He ran forward. Lots of good upkeeps went up. The Kayazy made it so that I couldn't shoot within 5" of them, making them unshootable by all but a few weapons.
Not much else to say.
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| MacBain's feat keeps 5 + d6 warrior models from dying. Enough warrior models here for you? |
Circle Turn 1:
Rory had run a few of his Kayazy up a little too far, and I would be able to spray a couple of them to death.
I managed to kill 4 Kayazy, which was important, as it would limit Rory's jamming options next turn if he wanted to pop his feat.
Wrath walked up and I decided it would be potentially very helpful if I got a 5" scather template in front of the infantry-heavy army. So, I targeted a Kayazy, auto-missed (because of stealth), and it scattered up and to the right 6". This directly hit Dahlia and Harlan Versch. I boosted both hits. It killed Versch, and Dahlia was forced to transfer 8 damage to Scarath. Haha, kind of a lucky/awesome scatter!
Not much else happened. I put Baldur within striking distance of his eventual permanent sitting position. Grew a forest to confound Rory. That kind of stuff.
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| Killed 5 models, one of them a solo! Woo hoo! Forests are protecting Megalith - I was pretty sure the Sentry Stones were safe this turn. |
Mercs Turn 2:
Rory used some shooting from Scarath to kill a bunch of Bloodtrackers. Auto-boosted attack rolls on a 10" spray is pretty good :)
Otherwise, he jammed me pretty hard. Boomhowler put up Cacophony.
MacBain got into scoring position. He then POPPED HIS FEAT, protecting Boomhowler, Dahlia, Eiyriss2, and the front rank of Kayazy. Yikes!
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| Going to be an interesting turn for me... |
Circle Turn 2:
I needed to do SOME damage this turn, score, and prevent Rory from scoring.
First, I realized that his jack on the left was easily within Megalith's threat range. So Baldur cycled Stone Skin onto Megalith. He also advanced so he could dominate his own flag.
Megalith pummeled the jack to death.
I then realized that I had forgotten Baldur's feat. I had entirely forgotten to think about it. Ah well.
Sentry Stones got their Mannikins to kill off a couple random things that COULD be killed. One of them actually generated its forest THEN jumped away behind it, screening Baldur and not becoming a target itself. The other Sentry Stone intended to do the same (he did grow a forest), but forgot to move himself away afterward. Sloppy.
Woldwrath kind of just didn't do much. He got into the zone, but I'm not sure if he killed anything or not.
Bloodtrackers got involved, and I 100% meant to get one within 4" of the enemy flag, but also forgot to do that too. Sigh.
Not a terrible turn for me, all things considered. That feat was very hard to deal with, though I think I was more angry at myself for forgetting to contest the enemy flag than anything.
We both scored.
Score: 1-1.
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| Silly exposed Sentry Stone :-/ |
Rory decided to press his table advantage and jammed further.
He managed to kill all but one of my Bloodtrackers.
Kayazy killed my exposed Sentry Stone.
Eiyriss charged in and punched Megalith and did like 8 damage to Baldur through some ability that affects models with upkeeps.
Other things jammed me, but I took a surprisingly small amount of damage. If you can call all Bloodtrackers + Sentry Stone "small damage".
Rory scored again.
Score: 2-1, advantage Mercs.
 |
| Time to punch Scarath. |
Circle Turn 3:
I really really needed to stop MacBain from scoring again.
Unfortunately, Baldur was not in range position to put Stone Skin back on the Wrath and still score this turn.
Still, I was compelled to do it. I figured with 3 (boosted to hit) punches available, he should at least be able to kill the snake, who already had 8 boxes of damage on it. Instead, the Wrath missed two swings (needed 8's to hit), and rolled a "3" for damage on the last one.
At least he was within 4" of the flag. He'd contest it until he died. Probably next turn.
Druids used apparition and their 6" advance to get behind Eiyriss and punch her to death. They also used their magic to knock down and kill several of Boomhowler's minions.
Megalith was unengaged, and therefore trampled over to Boomhowler himself, who died immediately. Megalith also killed a couple Kayazy on his way over.
Mannikin also killed something, I'm sure.
I scored, but kept Baldur's feat back - I needed to wait at least one more turn.
Score: 2-2.
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| Baldur put his own 4" forest up next to the Sentry Stone forest. |
Mercs Turn 4:
Rory essentially HAD to kill my Wrath this turn. Fortunately for him, it was only ARM 20.
The whole turn was spent trying to kill the Wrath.
Eventually, MacBain was forced to charge him, which took him off the flag.
Once Macbain charged, Wrath died, and the game suddenly felt more open, somehow.
Notably, Alten Ashley shot my Blackclad and only did 4 boxes to him! HA!
Score: 2-2.
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| He also jammed me with more of his never-ending supply of infantry. |
Circle Turn 4:
I was losing momentum like crazy. The game needed to end, and SOON.
My plan was thus: kill all models close enough to contest my flag through Baldur's feat, then feat, then win.
Rory had (within striking range):
1 Kayazy
3 Boomhowlers
Orin Midwinter
Piper of Ord
First, Druids apparitioned upward.
Megalith went and put up his -2 DEF within 5" of him animus. He punched the one of the Boomhowlers.
Mannikin went and boosted a spray at the DEF 11 Kayazy, killing it. Another Mannikin also boosted a shot at Orin Midwinter, killing him.
Druids all managed to kill 2 more Boomhowlers with their sticks or spells, and two of them even got backstrike bonuses on the Piper of Ord. The Piper died nicely. :)
Blackclad ran behind the obstruction on the right.
It was time.
Baldur hung out and POPPED HIS FEAT.
I scored again, and believed that the game was over...
Score: 3-2, advantage Circle.
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| Can Rory get a model to within 4" of my flag? |
Mercs Turn 4:
Rory hit Megalith a bunch, didn't quite manage to kill him, and scored again.
BUT
I also scored.
Score: 4-3, advantage Circle
Circle Turn 5:
I activated my units and ended my turn, scoring again.
The game ended.
Game Results: Win via Scenario for Circle Orboros!!
Post-game thoughts:
Wow, this was a tough game! Lots of infantry that were not only very difficult to kill, but were also actively preventing my models from using their abilities. Stealth, tough Kayazy that can't be shot without a spray or eyeless sight are very difficult to chew through.
I'm actually proud of most of my play this game. Once I was able to get rid of Eiyriss, my Druids went crazy! Their apparition move combined with their 6" normal move and 2" reach make them really solid infantry clearers in some circumstances. They can get into back arcs, knock models down, etc. Very impressed with them this game.
I wish I had had some way to get Stone Skin back on my Wrath. I think it was wiser for me just to sit back and score, but I may have been able to place my Shifting Stones in a way that facilitated Baldur walking over, putting Stone Skin back on, then porting back to the flag. I dunno. Some things require more foresight than I'm capable of at this stage.
One thing I really want to point out is that sometimes it's best to just wait to use a feat. I tend to use it early in most games, but in some circumstances, waiting until Turn 3 or 4 can really pay off. In this case, I was able to go from having 2 CP to a win with virtually no contest.
No matter how you look at it, it's hard to argue with the result! 3-0, and on to the Finals!
Tournament Scene:
Mike, the other Circle player, had lost to Mercs in the other semi-final game. That meant that I would be playing against Ryan's Mercs in the finals. Seems that Mercs got better in MK3 :)
Game 4: Circle Orboros vs. Mercenaries!!
His List:
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| It's either Ossrum or a pile of Cephalyx. |
Pairings Debate:
This wasn't much of a challenge. I wasn't list-locked, so I was going to drop Baldur1. I've beat both Cephalyx and Ossrum handily with Baldur in the past, and frankly, the finals of a biggish tournament is no place for a caster I'd played a total of 2 times.
>> I dropped Baldur1.
>> Ryan dropped Ossrum.
>>> Ryan won the roll to go first, and chose the table side with a trench for Ossrum to hide in while directing his various diabolical schemes.
Pre-game thoughts:
My plan was essentially to just get into the zone and go crazy. I could knock his low-DEF jacks down at will with the Druids and cause some allocation issues there. I just needed to be cautious of the big guns, which had some insane threat range, and could really ding up/kill my caster with Fire for Effect.
Tournament fatigue had also set in. I was just about ready to go to bed. But, if you can't get excited to play in the Finals at a tournament, why play?!
Deployment:
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| Bloodtrackers put Prey on the hammer dwarves on the left. Ryan would counter by leaving one of them waaay far back so I couldn't cycle Prey easily. |
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| Hammer Dwarves on the left, jacks and mortars on the right. |
Circle Turn 1:
I just moved up as fast as I could. If I couldn't score on Turn 2, then I'd need to be in position for a dominant Turn 3.
 |
| Sentry Stones are apparently keeping the Wrath screened... despite the fact that he is always visible through forests :) |
Ryan also ran up.
Reinholt pointed out a Sentry Stone and said it wasn't stealthed anymore.
Mortars promptly killed the non-stealthed Sentry Stone. Doh!
That was basically it.
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| Reinholt is pretty frustrating, haha :) |
Circle Turn 2:
I wasn't in range to do much with my heavies, but I ensured that I could charge anything in the zone with my two beasts on Turn 3, including the Objective.
Bloodtrackers wiped out six Hammer Dwarves, and put some damage on the light spray jack nearby.
Wrath advanced and put a boosted shot into the spray jack.
Megalith also got a boosted Earth Spikes onto the jack, leaving it on about 2 boxes and knocking out almost everything.
Baldur moved up and realized that Ossrum had some pretty ridiculous threat ranges on feat turn. So instead of letting him alpha me, I POPPED MY FEAT and cowered behind a forest.
Pretty decent turn, as everything I did was ranged.
 |
| What will Ossrum do? |
Mercs Turn 2:
He couldn't really do much this turn. Quite a few of my Bloodtrackers got taken out, as the feat didn't really protect them much. One spray jack got them pretty good too.
He had an ambushing solo come in and run at my Druids to tie them up.
Not much else happened. I think the Wrath got shot a little bit, but that was mostly okay.
Oh, Reinholt helped him kill my other Sentry Stone off the table. So much fun.
Oh yeah, the hurt spray jack couldn't get out of the 5" AOE, took a POW 10, and I spiked the "10" I needed to kill it! Haha, pretty cool!
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| I kind of wanted him to pop his feat that turn to get more ARM. That way I wouldn't need to worry about his increased threat ranges later. |
Circle Turn 3:
My turn needed to be spectacular. Or at least, let me score 3.
Stones ported the Blackclad forward into the zone.
Blackclad put Hunter's Mark on the objective.
Megalith charged first and killed a spray jack and did some damage on the objective.
Wrath went and finished off the objective, then (rolling somewhat poorly) killed the drill jack and one of the other lights. This was VERY foolish of me, as it left me with only Megalith as a transfer target. I didn't need to swing that last punch at the jack - it was knocked down, and a free strike would have also knocked it down - it was zero threat to me.
Alas.
Bloodtrackers and knockdown Druids killed off the remaining reachable Hammer Dwarves.
Druids had also apparitioned out of melee with the solo engaging them, and used back strike magic attacks to kill her.
Baldur trundled into the zone and placed a forest to protect him from the mortars. I settled on putting the forest flush with the objective.
At some point, probably just my own damn fault, the forest shifted a tiny bit to give a sliver of line of sight to a mortar crew.
Score: 3-0, advantage Circle.
 |
| See that little gap between the forest and the objective? It's very important. |
Ryan knew the writing was on the wall. But then, he noticed the little gap between the objective and the forest. I knew I had intended to put the forest there, but hadn't stated it. He wasn't a jerk about it, but after we asked the judge (I'm actually embarrassed that we asked the judge at all), he ruled that it needed to stay in play "as is".
So, Ryan went through the process of killing Megalith with Ayana and Holt, the Driller, and a few other things. It left him with two shots on Baldur: one from his light jack, and the other with a Mortar. He also POPPED HIS FEAT for the extra 3" of movement.
The light jack went up and hit (needed an "8" I believe), did about 6 damage to Baldur. I couldn't transfer it because I didn't have transfer targets. Looking at the picture, it really doesn't seem that he had LOS to Baldur, but... what's done is done. Who knows :)
The remaining Mortar crew had to move their full 7" to see through the gap between the objective and Baldur.
They shot and needed a "9" to hit, with 3 dice.
... and they...
...
...
MISSED!!
Whew! 4d6 damage at dice -2. Average dice would have killed Baldur.
He even rolled it, and it was of course enough damage, though the shot didn't really count.
So, a below average chance at assassination (average damage was exactly the number of boxes Baldur has, but he also needed to roll an "8" and a "9" to hit. Still, a REALLY good chance given the game state. Bravo to Ryan for finding it!
But, it failed, and I would have an easy time finishing the game.
Score: 3-0, advantage Circle.
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| See, I'm not convinced that the light jack had line of sight to Baldur. I allowed it though, so it's my own fault. |
Wrath went and did his "Gargantuan Slam" power attack on the remaining Driller, who was contesting the zone. The slam was a minimum of 3", which easily got him out of the zone.
I ended my turn, and Baldur dominated the zone for 2 more.
The game ended.
Game Results: Win via Scenario for Circle Orboros!!
Post-game thoughts:
Well, I felt like I did pretty well this game. However, I made a crucial mistake in not at least mentioning to my opponent my intentions with the forest placement. He was a really great guy - I'm sure he would have honored that. He was 100% in the right though, and actually made something out of his opportunity.
I think my Baldur1 list is a little bit of a mismatch for Ossrum. So much knockdown tech and board control tech is seemingly difficult for Ossrum to deal with. His assassination threat would have been non-existent if the Wrath had not filled up with fury, which was VERY possible to do.
So, I made a couple crucial mistakes (Wrath fury level and the forest/objective hole), but I felt this last game was one of my better ones otherwise. Huge props to Ryan, who was a great opponent!
Tournament Results:
It's not much of a mystery that I got first place. 4-0 will do that for you.
Rory, my Round 3 opponent got 2nd.
Ryan, my Round 4 opponent got 3rd.
My prizes included a medal, a numbered poster with the PP development team (or whatever they're called) signatures, and my pick of several heavy warbeast boxes (I chose a Warpwolf box, since I've been wanting a new Feral for a while now).
Here's a picture of the medal:
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| Now I have a Gold AND a Silver one of these! |
Post-tournament thoughts:
It was a fun tournament! I enjoyed all of my opponents greatly, and all of the games were interesting for different reasons. I really loved trying the Baldur1/Baldur2 pair, and maybe one day I'll go back to it.
I got really lucky a few times for sure, but I also felt that I played much more solidly than my previous tournament. Did I deserve 1st this tournament? Probably not, but I'll still take it :)
Next Up:
I've been playing Tanith lately. Got a top-of-2 assassination vs. Vayl2 last night with her, where Vayl2 had 2 transfers and a huge forest blocking LOS.
That said, I'm still kind of terrible with Tanith. I need a load more practice with her. My intention is to run Tanith and Baldur1 for ADR.
Next tournament is either October 1, October 16, or October 29. I can probably make at least one, if not two.
Also something to mess around with:
I think I'm going to try the Lightning Goats with Baldur1. I also want to try them with Krueger2 and a Storm Raptor. The models are just too nice to NOT experiment with them!
At any rate, I'm tired of typing. I'll see you all later, hope you enjoyed!
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