Hello all, it's been a while since my last post. Like, 2 months or so. Who knows if it'll be that long again until I post again. Life has been very busy, with mandatory overtime at work and other stuff. I have been taking the time to play games, I just don't post about them on this blog. Not lately at least.I spent a full month (October) playing almost exclusively Grayle. He's actually pretty strong! One (decent) theme force away from breaking into the tournament scene permanently.
During the time I was gone, I've played 3 tournaments. I'll probably do some sort of picture/info dump on the first two tournaments, since I don't want to lose those photos. I even got 3rd place at a tournament with a Grayle/Krueger2 pairing. HA!
However, I've really been looking forward to the "Dessert of Daggers" event held by my friend Josh Nordstrom at Gryphon Games & Comics. I think the name came from back in the day when the Feast of Blades (big local con) was in October, and this was the follow-up tournament. It's Gryphon's premier tournament of the year, with lots of cool prize support and a low entry fee.
This was likely to be my last semi-large tournament of the year, what with the holidays coming up. So, I brought my best. Yes, you guessed it: Baldur1 and Tanith in ADR.
Here are my lists:
 |
| Wow, that red looks awful. Sorry! |
Tournament Scene:
Looking around, there was basically every player in my meta I would prefer to avoid in a tournament. Not that they're unpleasant people (at all), but because they're good enough to win any given event on their merits as players. There were 18 total players. Let's see if I can remember some of the factions present:
2x Cygnar
3x Trolls
1x Khador
1x Circle (me!)
1x Skorne
2x Menoth
2x Cryx
1x Convergence
2x Legion
2x Mercs
Missing one. Ah well!
I had just gotten done telling someone about how it's probably best to have a really good opponent in your first round because of the awesome effect you have on each other's strength of schedule throughout the tournament. You'll always be guaranteed a strong SOS against your final opponent if you make it to the top table. You very seldom get an opponent in the first round who boosts your SOS though.
With that said, I was made to eat my words, as I was paired with someone I would normally expect to see at the top table of an event...
Game 1: Circle Orboros vs. Casey's Cryx!
His Lists:
 |
| Not very familiar with Cryx. |
Pairing Debate:
After reading his cards and asking some questions, I discovered that neither list had access to Ghostly. I felt that Tanith likely had game into either list (zero stealth means she can do some fancy stuff), but Baldur's feat would do some work against either list. In addition, there were a few debuffs that affected living enemy models. Finally, I just couldn't picture my Wrath being easily cracked by the Cryx heavies.
There was just too much to like about Baldur this game. So...
> I dropped Baldur1.
>> Casey dropped Gaspy3.
>>> Casey won the roll to go first, and took first turn.
Pre-game thoughts:
I didn't know what to expect. Like, at all. I knew what his character jacks did mostly, but Gaspy3 wasn't someone I'd ever really heard anything about. I did notice that he had Mobility.
For ADR, I decided to take my Reeves and the Mist Riders, taking out the Bloodtrackers and Druids.
This scenario wasn't very live - we would just be smashed in the middle. He could predict where my models would be. He was way faster than me (I knew this, yet wasn't quite prepared for how much faster he was than me).
My goals were pretty basic: I needed to keep a limit of one jack at a time on the Wrath to avoid losing him before he could do any work. I needed to have the Reeves threaten the board. I needed to keep Megalith very close to the Wrath, to draw charges or counter punch if necessary.
The one advantage I felt I had this game: I was much more range-heavy than Casey. I needed to press that advantage at every point I could.
Here's his deployment:
 |
| Deathjack and Bathroom are AD. lol. |
 |
| Hey look, my Woldwrath is painted!! |
Cryx Turn 1:
Gaspy put up Mobility, and Deathjack ran forward 16" or so. Maybe less, but he could have gotten 16" if he had needed it.
That's literally 29" up the board on turn 1. He was threatening anywhere outside of my deployment zone, before I could even move.
Everything else ran up as well. Already jamming me. Sigh.
 |
| I was unprepared for DJ to end this close to me, to say the least. |
Circle Turn 1:
Yikes. Like seriously... yikes.
If I advanced even a little bit, I was going to be threatened from multiple angles.
I decided that it was fortunate indeed that I had brought a control caster to help bail me out a little bit.
Instead of looking at the game like one big problem, I decided to take it piece by piece.
I saw it like this:
- Reeves would probably eventually win the fight with the Satyxis if I could apply my feat advantageously.
- Deathjack and Bathroom couldn't be allowed to hit my beasts at all next turn.
- I needed to make at least one of the two jacks pay for being so close.
Megalith advanced and used an Earth Spikes on DJ, getting a decent damage roll but no knockdown.
Wrath also advanced some and put a boosted shot into DJ, getting an above average roll. No systems went out though.
Baldur put up Stone Skin on the Wrath and Solid Ground, and camped 2.
Then, he POPPED HIS FEAT.
I had made sure I was mostly outside of striking distance. We would see what Casey could do to me during my first-turn feat.
Cryx Turn 2:
Casey couldn't get to me, and he knew it. He mostly settled for killing ALL of my Mannikins, and sliding up far with his Satyxis Raiders.
Deathjack opted for a tactical retreat behind the forest, where his mechanic healed him for a few points.
I think this was the turn Casey POPPED HIS FEAT as well.
 |
| My first turn took me 17 minutes apparently, lol. |
Circle Turn 2:
I didn't have any great options. Casey was threatening to start scoring, and my own models weren't very close to the flags to contest. Still, I needed to solve the problem of DJ + BR.
First, I got a little awkward with my Druids and some Shifting Stones and Mannikins. I tried to use the Mannikin as an arc target to the Satyxis, which worked okay, but only killed one girl. I think the other arc into the Stone also netted me one girl. The Druids were forced to be engaged to make all this happen though, so the two Satyxis engaged were essentially guaranteed to survive the turn.
Reeves managed to kill all remaining Satyxsis with very little trouble. They almost certainly could have gotten all of them, had I used the Druids better.
Wrath shuffled up again and shot at DJ. This time I managed to spike something crazy (I think I got a "17") and took out DJ's movement and Cortex. The blast damage also took out the Mechanic. noice!
Megalith decided it was time to reveal himself, and trampled forward and targeted Bathroom with Earth Spikes.... which Orin Midwinter calmly negated. I had been prepared to lose Megalith, but I'd kind of planned on him at least hitting something first. Sigh.
A Mannikin belatedly activated and tried to spray Orin down, but failed to get his boosted "8" to hit.
Really, that was a pretty clumsy turn for me.
That's what happens when you don't practice much though. Alas.
Also, I can't believe I forgot about it, but I let him score on his own turn. Very sloppy indeed.
Score: 1-0, advantage Cryx.
 |
| I'm really not playing very well, am I? I actually think part of that is that Casey is a good player and was able to force me into uncomfortable situations. Happens. |
Cryx Turn 3:
After getting Mobility up and allocating a bunch of focus, DJ and BR combined to kill Megalith. Importantly, BR needed his final roll to kill Megalith, so he couldn't use a focus to punch the Mannikin next to him and Drag Below.
Snapjaw surprised me and charged my Reeves, killing 3 of them.
Not a whole lot else.
Well, other than him scoring twice more. Sigh.
Score: 3-0. advantage Cryx.
 |
| Not looking good. |
Circle Turn 3:
I had two turns to get the Wrath up to contest Casey's flag while also killing the heavies.
First, I shifted TWO Shifting Stones up to contest the flag.
Blackclad got Hunter's Mark on DJ.
Some of the Reeves walked up and shot a few shots into the Cankerworm to get some damage on him.
Baldur charged DJ and did some damage, but also used those extra 2" to get B2B with the flag.
Wrath charged DJ and finished him, then used up 3 or 4 attacks to kill Bathroom. I decided to keep one fury on him so that I had a transfer target.
I actually scored a point!
Score: 3-1, advantage Cryx.
 |
| Neither of us had much clock left, so this is the last picture. |
Cryx Turn 4:
Casey just needed to block my access to his flag and he would win! So, that's what he tried for. He did need to clear two Stones however, and he wasn't really in great position to block me after expending those resources.
He did manage to score once more however.
Score: 4-1, advantage Cryx.
Circle Turn 4:
I essentially just ran my Wrath up to within 4" to contest the flag. I managed to kill Orin with Reeves I think... I'm not 100% sure.
Baldur camped it all and scored another time.
Now Casey would need to kill Baldur or the Wrath to win.
Score: 4-2, advantage Cryx.
Cryx Turn 5:
Gaspy charged in and SUPER SPIKED some damage onto the Wrath, but it wasn't enough. Wrath had well over 10 boxes remaining when all was said and done.
Score: 4-3, advantage Cryx.
Circle Turn 5:
Wrath punched Gaspy twice, right in the nuts.
...the game ended.
Results of Game 1: Win for Circle Orboros, 4-3!!
Post-game thoughts:
What a crazy game! I ended with 1 minute left on my clock, and Casey had 30 seconds. We went down to the WIRE!
Looking at this game, I think we both could have played better. Casey for the most part played a very technical, skilled game. I think he made a mistake charging Wrongeye into my Reeves, because once he got there, he couldn't really extract himself well, and no longer posed much of a threat to my Wrath.
Myself, I did a lot of things poorly. I should have put the Reeves more centrally, to counter ridiculous DJ + Bathroom jams. If they'd been in range of the DJ turn 1, I think that average dice would have killed him with my shooting.
I also should have used the Mist Riders competently. Like, at all. Horrible misuse of them. Inexcusable.
Leaving Casey to score on Turn 2 was a huge noob mistake. I could have given myself MUCH more time if I had prevented Casey's scoring on Turn 2 and contested my own flag better on Turn 3.
As it stands, Casey was as skilled as ever, and I was lucky not only to play such a fun (but tense) game with him, but to come away with a win. That's not something anyone should take for granted against Casey. Probably the opposite, in fact.
Tournament Scene:
I had zero time to see who had won and who had lost. With myself and my opponent leaving a combined 90 seconds on the clock, our game by far went the latest. I knew that my friend and rival Andy had beat my other friend and rival, Rory in another very rough first-round match. In fact, I think that both of them have won tournaments in the past month. Maybe in the past 2 weeks.
I didn't know much else. I just hoped I didn't have another tough match.
hahahaha...
Game 2: Circle Orboros vs. Colin's Skorne!!
His lists:
 |
| Colin has been "Skorne-shaming" people he beats with Skorne. Heh. |
Pairings Debate:
Well, I wasn't really sure, but I thought that both of my lists probably had some game into this. However, if Skorne is good at one thing, it's at bricking up and breaking armor. Neither of those things appealed to Baldur1, who has some good armor, and a little bit of armor cracking, but not really enough.
Tanith on the other hand was designed to be my armor cracking list. Also, I had very little in the way of things that had armor, thus somewhat negating Colin's ability to crack said armor.
Plus, any opportunity to play your second list at an event to avoid being list-locked is a good opportunity. As you'll eventually see :)
> I dropped Tanith.
>> Colin dropped Zaadesh2
ADR: I dropped a Sentry Stone in favor of Alten Ashley. Mostly because my need to kill infantry wasn't very high, and Alten could potentially win games on his own against Hordes. I also traded Pureblood + Gobbers for my Warpwolf Stalker. Needed moar armor cracking.
>>> I won the roll to go first, and took it. Because hey, Tanith is actually pretty good if you can get her up the field right away.
Pre-game thoughts:
So yes. I knew it was Skorne. It's hard to be sad about playing against Skorne. HOWEVER.
I've said it in other battle reports, but Colin is one of the best players in our meta. He commonly wins and places in events with his Trolls, and was so bored of winning with them that he decided to play a real challenge with Skorne. He DID win his first game of the event here. He had actually just recently beat my Grayle list with his Skorne in a friendly game as well. I'll tell you this: I very seldom lose to Skorne. Colin is a good enough player that his faction is largely irrelevant.
However, I had a few advantages. First, I don't know if I've lost on The Pit yet this edition. Something about it makes sense to me or something. Second, Zaadesh2 is brand new. Colin wouldn't have had much time practicing him.
My goal was pretty simple: I would threaten the main zone, keep Colin from getting too close, and use my Reeves to threaten his own flag.
Colin had chosen the side of the board with a building to hide behind. Whereas that might have turned off many of my assassination attempts, it also meant that he would need to split his brick up, which is usually a bad plan with a Skorne brick.
So, that was kind of my game plan. Heh.
Sorry, no deployment pictures apparently.
Circle Turn 1:
I ran forward. Like, almost as far as I could. Reeves and Griffons wanted to be in position ASAP.
 |
| Leftmost Griffon was attached to Tanith. |
Skorne Turn 1:
Colins ran up as well. A few of his stealth infantry killed some of my Mannikins, which I was okay with. Better to draw out some of the infantry screen sooner than later, as I'd have bigger threats to worry about soon enough.
Zaadesh also put up a wall of clouds to cover his beasts from my shooting. On the right, some Gobbers put up their own cloud wall.
 |
| Colin forgot to put up the "counter-charge" spell this turn. Or rather, chose to put up clouds instead of it. |
Circle Turn 2:
I didn't have a lot of targets available. I decided to kill some infantry and play for board position instead.
Through boosted sprays and a Griffon charge or two, I managed to kill most of the Bloodrunners.
Alten stepped to the side of the clouds and shot 6 points off the Sentry's spirit, then moved his 3" backward to avoid being charged by anything.
Reeves advanced and killed both gobbers with two big CRAs.
 |
| I was a little sloppy in measuring threat ranges... |
Skorne Turn 2:
Colin saw a very clear path to my Stalker with his Sentry. I had kind of goofed up and put Admonition on the Feral initially, so he had just enough range to get to me if he wanted. But could a FURY 3 beast get it done? Neither of us were sure.
Colin didn't have a lot of targets this turn. He did kill a few Mannikins, and otherwise ran his remaining Bloodrunners up to engage Alten and a Griffon.
He decided to go for it, and POPPED HIS FEAT, giving all of his beasts +2 POW and +2 MAT. The Gladiator put Rush on the Sentry, and the Sentry also probably got Enraged by the beast handlers.
Then, the Sentry charged my Stalker. He hit his initial attack, taking about 13 boxes. He swung with his remaining attacks and... missed. He needed 6's to hit, though I believe that only a few of his attacks could be directed at the Stalker, since some of his initials were only 1" range.
 |
| Now I kind of get a "free" beast to eat. FWIW. |
Circle Turn 3:
I had a few things I could do. I really wanted to put some hurt on this turn and pressure Colin. That included starting to score.
I had Scything Touch on one of Una's Griffons, so he naturally flew over and started punching the Sentry. The Stalker took a turn punching (no need for Primal when you have Scything Touch in range of the target), and the Sentry died. The Stalker used his animus to Sprint away.
Blackclad got a backstrike on the Bloodrunner engaging Alten and killed him (did you know Blackclads have 7 MAT?)
Mannikins also killed at least one more Bloodrunner.
Alten aimed and shot the Gobber Chef contesting the flag.
Tanith's Griffon ran into the cloud effect near Colin's cloud so he could see Tiberion.
Tanith went and POPPED HER FEAT. She got Affliction off on Tiberion. She then advanced a little bit and shot her gun into the clump of Legends of Halaak character unit. One died from the shot, and the others were Shadow Bound (can't advance except to change facing).
Shifting Stones teleported Tanith into B2B with the flag, since it was clear and nobody was threatening it.
Reeves went last and shot 22 shots into Tiberion, causing 20 points of damage. Heh.
I scored a point.
Score: 1-0, advantage Circle.
 |
| Not the worst game state ever. |
Skorne Turn 3:
Colin started with Tiberion trying to punch the nearest Griffon. He missed all of his attacks. The Gladiator also charged in on the same Griffon, and also missed all of his attacks. Some of the attacks he even boosted to hit, and still missed. Really bad dice. Like, really bad.
In frustration, he ran the Despoiler and Agonizer up to contest my flag.
Zaadesh put up some clouds to mask Tiberion from the Reeves.
Some Beast Handlers healed Tiberion a few points.
Score: 1-0, advantage Circle.
Circle Turn 4:
I needed to take advantage of Colin's awful rolling and put the game to rest.
Reeves walked into the clouds and shot Tiberion to death.
Feral and Scything Touch Griffon combined to kill the Gladiator.
Tanith and the Stalker combined to kill Despoiler. I was a little sloppy on this - I wanted to put both Primal AND Scything Touch on the Stalker, but was a little dumb and hit Despoiler with Tanith's melee weapon instead (lol).
It turned out not to matter, as the Stalker managed to kill Despoiler just fine without help. I also had Alten to try a desperation shot at Despoiler if necessary, but it was unnecessary.
After I killed Despoiler (his final Heavy), Colin threw in the towel. I was surprised to discover that he hadn't killed a single model of mine other than Mannikins.
Game 2 Results: Win for Circle Orboros!!
Post-game thoughts:
Well, that was a one-in-a-lifetime result against Colin. I doubt he ever plays another game where he doesn't get a single tiebreaker point.
Not much to say about this game. Reeves shooting Tiberion to death with Affliction was cool to see. In hindsight, I'm not sure if risking the Sentry to kill my Stalker was the right choice: he was only getting a few attacks, and needing 6's is somewhat risky.
I did like Zaadesh2 though. The clouds are good, and his other spells are good too. The game may have been very different had Colin put up the counter-charge on battlegroup spell Turn 1.
As it stood, I'd just played my first two games against two of the region's best players. My Strength of Schedule was going to be ridiculous :)
Tournament Scene:
After some crazy games, the pair-down lost, so there wouldn't be a 5th round (whew!) and I was in the final 4. The others were Andy (my nemesis, with two jack-heavy Khador lists), Gabe (Legion w/ Lylyth3 and Fyonna2), and Kyle (Legion w/ Abby2 and Thagrosh1).
I had built my Tanith list in part to help me counter Khador jack spam, but those games are never easy for Circle. I also had no interest in playing against Lylyth3 or Abby2, which were the casters I was pretty sure Legion would drop into me.
All very solid players. I didn't spend much time worrying, since all three were going to be very difficult to defeat.
Game 3: Circle Orboros vs. Gabe's Legion of Everblight!!
His lists:
 |
| Another of the new warlocks! |
Pairing Debate:
I had already decided that against Gabe I would need to drop Baldur, while Tanith would go into the other two opponents. Against the probable outcome of Lylyth3, Baldur had the best chance to weather the storm of ridiculous threat ranges. His feat would be live, and the boobs scenario would give me some solid ability to score when necessary.
> I dropped Baldur1
>> Gabe dropped Lylyth3
ADR:
I swapped out my Bloodtrackers and Druids for Mist Riders and Reeves. Reeves are money against Legion :)
>>> Gabe won the roll to go first, and because he knew that I like going 2nd most games with Baldur1, he took 2nd. Haha, probably a wise move.
Pre-game thoughts:
I wasn't sure what to think about this game. Gabe is a really good player who plays at my own LGS. I think he went about 15 games into MK3 without losing. He'd beaten me on a few different occasions. Not a favorable match up. Heh :)
I was sure that Gabe would be trying to snipe out my Sentry Stones early, but there wasn't much I could do about that.
I decided that just getting up the board fast was most important. His heavies were going to have a difficult time killing my Wrath, though the Naga would definitely help (using Wraithbane takes away the Wrath's +2 ARM bonus). I'd need to make sure both of his heavies couldn't get into the Wrath in the same turn.
Essentially, I wanted to choose one zone to dominate and one zone to contest. If I could dominate a zone first, I'd eventually win. Theoretically.
Deployment:
 |
| The big green thing in the middle is a HILL, not a forest. Haha, I wish it was a forest! |
Circle Turn 1:
I ran everything up. I got the Reeves into some Ruins for the cover bonus, since I knew his Striders were going to shoot at them.
Not much else to report.
 |
| Need to start threatening zones ASAP. |
Legion Turn 2:
Gabe trampled Lylyth up and managed to get a few nice spikes on damage rolls to kill BOTH Sentry Stones in a turn (she needed a "14" to one-shot a Sentry Stone, lol). She then repositioned 5" backward.
Everything else moved upward.
 |
| Stalkers couldn't hit my Cover'd Reeves. DEF 17 is real :) |
Circle Turn 2:
I saw an opportunity to make this game much more difficult for Gabe: the Reeves were all within range of the Naga if I moved the full 6".
So I did, and the Naga went down pretty easily to my two big CRAs. Reeves also popped their mini-feat for cover.
This was a big deal, as Gabe no longer had access to Wraithbane. My Wrath was going to be REALLY hard for Gabe to clear now.
Wrath shot at a stealthed Strider, but scattered off.
A couple goats toed the right zone.
 |
| Right now, I'm leaning toward the left zone as my dominant zone. What do you think? :) |
Legion Turn 2:
Gabe was a little flustered about me killing the Naga - there was no point in him being that far up, after all.
So, he started by activating his Death Stalkers, who both missed my DEF 17 Reeves. Heh.
We both then realized that he had forgotten to reave from his beasts. He did the stand-up thing and did NOT ask me if he could go back and do it, since he'd already been activating multiple models.
So, a Carnivean bit Lylyth for 10 points, which she transferred with her only fury.
The Seraph did some good damage to my Megalith via ranged attacks. Typhon sprayed my two contesting Goats off the table easily.
Lylyth shot her 3 shots at the Reeves, but with cover, she missed all 3, and therefore didn't get to cast a free Wind Wall.
Gabe did score a point this turn.
Score: 1-0, advantage Legion.
 |
| Lylyth is camping zero this turn. |
Circle Turn 3:
I had to decide whether I wanted to try for the assassination or scenario win.
You see, I had a GREAT chance to just machine gun all of the chaff away from the left zone with the Reeves, run into the zone with Baldur to score 2, and after this turn and the next, pop my feat so that Gabe couldn't get to me with anything that mattered. I figured I had a decent chance of success if I went that route.
But, the math told me that I could kill Lylyth fairly reliably with even slightly below-average dice. Even if I failed, I would have a decent chance to win the game, as I wouldn't be overcommitted. Gabe was too good of a player to give him a chance to outplay me.
So, the Reeves walked up and double-tapped Lylyth. At Dice + 1 on both shots, I managed to do about 15 points.
Wold Wrath walked up and boosted a shot into her. He hit, and she died immediately.
The game ended.
Game 3 Results: Win for Circle Orboros via... assassination? Of Lylyth 3? lol
Post-game thoughts:
Well, I can't ever expect my opponent to just hand me the game like that again. The whole lead up to the game, Gabe seemed eager to get started, and moved like he felt rushed. Being a veteran of about 10 million tournaments, I don't really let myself be rushed, but it seemed like he couldn't wait to get started. I could hardly blame him - his list was pretty solid into mine.
The Naga mistake was probably the thing that sealed the game for me. The Carnivean + Typhon would have a very difficult time killing my Wrath after that, and my feat could be used to control when they charged me.
After that, Lylyth not reaving was a windfall for me, but I think I could have won without that. Who really knows - Gabe is a really good player, and Lylyth was going to be a tough nut to crack.
One thing I do know: I'd have shot that Bolt Thrower off the table next. Without Snipe, Lylyth3 is greatly diminished. She starts needing to make some risky moves to be effective.
Very lucky to get a win like that against such a skilled opponent. It's the classic case of why you should never let your guard down in Warmachine: one mistake can lose you the whole game.
Tournament Scene:
Andy had played Kyle, and I was surprised to find that Andy had lost, mostly because I knew Andy was a very skilled player, while I hadn't really interacted with Kyle much to that point.
It would be me vs. Kyle in the finals. The tournament had a rule that if you made the finals, the worst you could get was 2nd place. So, I was going to place! YES!!
Game 4: Circle Orboros vs. Kyle's Legion of Everblight!
His Lists:
 |
| Kyle was locked into Thagrosh1. I've never played against someone who was list locked before... |
Pairing Debate:
I decided that Tanith would probably do some dirty things to Thagrosh1, though Baldur would also be good. I decided that it would be most fun to play Tanith this time, especially because I knew that I could threaten all points on the board where Kyle could score. Would I finally have the advantage in threat ranges?
> I dropped Tanith.
>> Kyle dropped Thagrosh1 (duh).
ADR: I swapped out my Pureblood + Gobbers for my Stalker. I just wanted a little extra range.
>>> I won the roll to go first, and took first turn.
Pre-game thoughts:
I actually just wanted to kill things with my Reeves, while the rest of our forces stared at each other. I figured with my threat ranges, and with first turn, I could win scenario and make Kyle commit to some poor piece trades. At least, that's what I hoped.
Deployment:
 |
| Tanith's Griffon is on the left. |
Circle Turn 1:
I ran everything up as far forward as I could. I made sure to stay outside the Swordsman's engage-with-a-run range.
 |
| Scything Touch on the middlest Griffon, Admonition on the Feral again. |
Legion Turn 1:
Kyle also ran forward. Heh.
 |
| How many things can the Reeves and Mannikins kill? |
Circle Turn 2:
I saw a chance to do some good damage to Kyle this turn.
Blackclad walked up and put Hunter's Mark on a Carnivean in the forest.
Feral put Primal on one Griffon.
Tanith put Primal on another Griffon.
Both of Una's Griffons charged the Carniviean and killed it easily. Actually, ONE Griffon went ham and killed the Carnivean on his own. The other one had Primal on it though, so I just ran it up to engage a couple Warspears.
Reeves and Mannikins (with 5 Fury per stone) combined to kill 6 Swordsmen and 4 Warspears. Heh.
Really solid turn for me.
 |
| I did way more damage with the Mannikins than I thought I would, that's for sure! |
Legion Turn 2:
Kyle managed to kill one of my Gryphons, but the other was essentially at full health. He ran a Spell Martyr in to take the brunt of my Primaling.
Swordsmen ran upward, one of them engaging a few of my Reeves.
Seraph shot some shots at ... something. Not sure if it did any damage.
Typhon went and POPPED HIS FEAT, putting the once-dead Carnivean back on the table. Bleck.
 |
| That feat is really solid. Huge attrition points swing there. |
Cirlce Turn 3:
I had the ability to kill Typhon this turn, which seemed worth it to me.
Tanith advanced and shot the objective, putting Shadow Bind on the Warspear solo and another Warspear, AND on Typhon. She put Scything Touch on the Stalker.
Blackclad walked up and put Hunter's Mark on DEF 10 Typhon.
Feral put Primal on the Stalker.
Stalker charged and killed Typon easily. Without another good target, he also butchered the Objective.
Tanith's Griffon flew up and killed the remaining Swordsman engaging the Reeves.
Mannikins combined to kill the remaining Swordsmen, but that was really it.
Reeves advanced and put two solid CRAs into the Seraph, almost killing it.
I got a point for killing the objective.
Score: 1-0, advantage Circle.
 |
| So, 2 heavies down, 2 to go. |
Legion Turn 3:
Kyle was pretty sure he was going to lose. He kept telling people that, though I knew he still had a lot of possible tricks up his sleeve.
Carnivean advanced and did some good damage to my Stalker, but it's hard to hit DEF 14, and the Stalker survived, though he would frenzy next turn from Primal anyways.
Seraph used its animus to keep the Carnivean away from the Stalker's frenzy, and then proceeded to kill one of my Sentry Stones with a single shot. Haha, doh!
Thagrosh hit Una's remaining Gryphon, but didn't kill it. He also used a Spell Martyr to shoot Obliteration into the center of my Reeves, killing about 5 of them. Nice shot!
Score: 1-0, advantage Circle.
Circle Turn 4:
I needed to put this away. Attrition was starting to favor Legion a little too much for my liking.
Reeves combined to finish off the Seraph.
I put Tanith's Gryphon up on the flank to threaten the Carnivean.
Stalker ate something for his Frenzy.
Mannikins and Una finished off the Warspear UA and Warspear solo, leaving only one remaining Warspear.
Tanith missed her boosted shot at the remaining Warspear.
I scored 2 more points for dominating the zone.
Score: 3-0, advantage Circle.
 |
| He has 3 models remaining. And yet he has a chance to assassinate me, despite my camp of 5. Yikes! |
Legion Turn 4:
Kyle was running out of clock. This was likely to be his last turn.
He told me he had a long-shot assassination on me though, which was unexpected.
Warspear went up and tried to kill the Stalker, but missed.
Carnivean charged my Griffon on the left and killed it.
That left only Thagrosh.
He took a free strike from my Griffon (didn't do much), and charged a Mannikin.
He then used a spell to kill off a Shifting Stone and replaced the stone with Thagrosh, in easy 2" melee range of Tanith.
Then, he used a spell on my full-health Feral to make it impossible to transfer to him.
That left me with 5 Fury to transfer, but only one beast to transfer to (my 8-box Stalker).
Thagrosh only had 2 Fury remaining though.
He needed an 8 to hit Tanith, and he missed all of his rolls. It was still far closer than I figured he'd get!
Circle Turn 5:
My Stalker punched the Warspear to death, and I dominated the zone for 2 more points, winning the game.
Game 4 Results: Win for Circle Orboros via scenario!!
Post-game thoughts:
I think Thagrosh1 is a poor drop into Circle. Abby2 is way (way) better. Fortunately for me, Kyle was locked into Thagrosh1, and he was convinced that he wouldn't have been able to get to the finals without dropping Abby2 each time. If that's true, then I don't disagree with his decision. Always worth it to get to the Finals, no matter what :)
That said, Tanith does some serious work! Her force's offensive output is ridiculous! Me getting 1st turn meant that Kyle was going to have a tough time weathering all of my shooting, along with my superior threat ranges.
It wasn't really a fair fight. Abby2 would have been far more difficult for me. That said, Kyle played it well, and even had a chance to win the whole game at the end. He was a great opponent, and I was very fortunate to once again have 4 really good gaming experiences!
Tournament Results: 1st place for Circle Orboros!!
I ended up with $90 store credit, free entry into ALL 2017 tournaments at Gryphon's, and a full set of Muse on Minis Tokens. Ironically, I already owned the Circle ones, so I'm selling the set. Still a pretty cool prize :)
Post-tournament thoughts:
Well, I played some very sloppy games, mixed in with a few good plays here and there. I got very lucky in most of my games, and I'm not convinced I entirely earned a tournament win here. Still, my opponents were all very skilled, and I will always take a win against any of them, because I never know when I'll be capable of beating them next. I'm both honored and thrilled to have won such a tough tournament!
Next up:
There's at least one tournament in December I want to play in. It will probably be either Baldur1 + Tanith ADR (one last time!) or something weird like Una2 and Krueger2. Really not sure haha.
At any rate, thanks for reading! Let me know what you think!
No comments:
Post a Comment