WTC Practice event

Last weekend I was up in Dublin for some toys.

We had 5 teams in attendance, an odd number but it meant there was going to be 3 rounds and some games.

I ended up bringing Haley2 and a revised Caine2 I talked about previously:

(Haley 2) Major Victoria Haley

 - Avenger

 - Stormclad

 - Stormclad

 - Thorn

 - Squire

Captain Arlan Strangewayes

Storm Lances (max)

Ragman

(Caine 2) Captain Allister Caine

 - Defender

 - Hunter

 - Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator

Journeyman Warcaster

 - Firefly

Stormblade Infantry

 - Stormblade Infantry Storm Gunner x2

 - Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard

Storm Lances (max)

Trencher Infantry (min)

Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

Captain Maxwell Finn

Our team - Ireland Craic - consisted of:

(Me)Cygnar - Haley2 and Caine2

Circle - Wormwood and Kromac2

Trolls - Madrak2 and Doomy1

Legion - Rhyas and Thagrosh2

Menoth - Kreoss1 and Thyra

Round one we were paired up against the Merc team for this event they had:

Khador - Butcher3 and Sorscha1

Ret - Ossyan and Rahn

Trolls - Madrak2 and Calandra

Cygnar1 - Kara and Styker2

Cygnar2 - Caine2 and Maddox

We all wanted to avoid the Kara Matchup aside from Wormwood so we set out to engineer that.

(Me)Cygnar Vs Trolls

Circle Vs Cygnar1

Legion Vs Cygnar2

Trolls Vs Ret

Menoth Vs Khador

I am playing against Anton a French doctor and hipster aficionado.

He has Madrak2 and Calandra, he also knows that I have been working on my Haley2 list as a Madrak2 counter so he elects to drop Calandra.

I of course drop Haley2.

His Calandra list is as follows:

(Calandra 1) Calandra Truthsayer, Oracle of the Glimmerwood

 - Dire Troll Bomber

 - Rok

 - Troll Axer

 - Trollkin Runebearer

Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (max)

 - Stone Scribe Elder

Sons of Bragg

Trollkin Warders (min)

Trollkin Champions (min)

 - Skaldi Bonehammer

Looking back on the list I think he might have had max Champs on the field as opposed to the min listed here, yep, after checking, he's a cheater!

So anyway, I won the roll to go first and elected to do so.

I did the usual TK and reaction drive up with the Jacks  running the Lances and putting Haley near my flag and the edge of the zone.

Anto puts bullet dodger on Rok and moves the rest of his stuff up at a run, casting Starcrossed but forgetting to put fury on the stone!

He also makes a positioning error of leaving a champion within distance enough of a Quake shot catching Rok.

I setup a turn to try and clear the zone and remove Rok then feat.

I am able to do so by TK'ing the Champion closest to Rok and putting him with his back to the Avenger. The Avenger then knocks him and Rok down and I send in both Stormclads to kill off Rok and the Champs in the Zone.

Haley feats.

Anto has to dump fury into the stone this turn and is able to Befuddle the closest clad into Melee with a Son of Bragg after doing great bomb rolls on it, this kills it. The Warders move forward to jam up in the zone along with the other Champs.

Calandra is on 1 fury in the trench with Starcrossed up.

I come up with loads of different plans to assassinate him and end up using thorn to TK her out of the Trench and turn her around, I then TA the Avenger and TK a Warder away, I also TK a Lance to make room for Ragman.

Ragman moves up and Death Fields to catch the Warders  then the Clad moves up and kills or toughs the two Warders in Shield Guard Range and then the Avenger moves up and shoots Calandra twice doing decent damage as well.

Then the Storm Lances assault in, one of them getting the full charge thanks to Impact attacks working on a knocked down Warder and I then shoot my assaults and I am able to finish her off without having to make the Melee swing.

Assassination WIN!

Thoughts:

A number of errors lead to Rok dying, although it is pretty hard to protect him against the avenger and TK.

Not putting fury on the stone meant no +2 ARM for Rok or even bullet dodger for Calandra.

Losing a clad under Haleys feat was bad but I did trade it well with Rok and I still had the Avenger in case of Emergencies.

Thorn is a boss, and amazing at enabling Haley to avoid the Star Crossed bubble.

The team is able to win a couple of other games and we win the round 3-2

(Me)Cygnar Vs Trolls - WIN

Circle Vs Cygnar1  - WIN

Legion Vs Cygnar2 - LOSS

Trolls Vs Ret - LOSS

Menoth Vs Khador  - WIN

The next Team is Brigands Prime playing:

Khador1 - Karchev and Sorscha1

Khador2 - Kozlov and Zerkova2

Skorne1 - Makeda3 and Hexeris1

Skorne2 - Xekaar and

Legion - Thagrosh2 and Abby1

Our menoth player wants to avoid Sorscha1 so we opt for that.

(Me)Cygnar Vs Skorne1

Circle Vs Khador1

Legion Vs Legion

Trolls Vs Skorne2

Menoth Vs Khador2

So I am playing Conor who has Makeda3 and Hexeris1, both heavy on the beasts so I opt for Haley2 again, he selects Makeda3:

(Makeda 3) Makeda & the Exalted Court

 - the Exalted Court

 - Molik Karn

 - Tiberion

 - Cyclops Brute

 - Cyclops Brute

 - Titan Gladiator

 - Cyclops Savage

Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor

Mortitheurge Willbreaker

Paingiver Beast Handlers (min)

Paingiver Beast Handlers (min)

I lose the roll and end up going second.

Conor deploys with Makeda centrally, Tibbers on my left, Molik on my right and the other Cyclops in the middle.

I unpack and create a 13.1" Molik bubble around my right hand zone with Thorn hanging out in the middle, I do forget to move Haley though.

Conor Moves Tibbers into the Left zone and with some Paingivers and a Sentry and Brute into the right with One Paingiver.

I charge Haley into the Zone, after casting a few spells and feating. One clad goes in after the Avenger Knocks down Molik and the Savage and Kills the Brute and Savage, a Storm Lance takes care of the Paingiver.

Thorn runs into the other zone and cowers behind a wall toeing the zone. I score 2 CPs

With almost all of his models under Haleys feat there isn’t much that can be done apart from to walk the Gladiator and 1 Brute into my zone along with a few Paingivers.

I use the Avenger to shoot one of Makdeas escorts, Knocking him and her down, killing Orin with blast damage.

I run Thorn across and then TK the Brute out of the zone and around so that Ragman can walk up to Death Field, A Stormclad walks round to Makdea and bops her on the head through 3 transfers.

Assassination WIN!

Thoughts:

Going second and being able to premeasure the predictable Threat Ranges was great, forcing the engagement and having Haleys feat to stop any retaliation was excellent, especially when the Skorne beasts are so slow.

I don't think Conor was that familiar with Haley2 and wasn't expecting the power of the feat.

The round ends 4-1 in our favour

(Me)Cygnar Vs Skorne1 - WIN

Circle Vs Khador1- WIN

Legion Vs Legion - WIN

Trolls Vs Skorne2 - LOSS

Menoth Vs Khador2 - WIN

Round Three is here and we are placed against the other Irish WTC Team in the final, Team Ceol

They have

Legion - Lylyth1 and Abby2

Cygnar - Haley2 and Caine2

Trolls - Madrak2 and Doomy2

Circle - Wormwood and Baldur2

Retribution - Ossyan and Kaelyssa

I want to try and arrange the Wormwood Mirror just to make them as miserable as possible but in the end we don't engineer that.

Pairings are:

(me)Cygnar Vs Cygnar

Legion Vs Trolls

Menoth Vs Legion

Circle Vs Ret

Trolls Vs Circle

I am paired against The robotic embodiment of Warmachine himself Mr Pat Dunford, Patbot.

We have a little discussion about the matchups we can expect and it turns out he is going to be laying a very similar list to me:

(Haley 2) Major Victoria Haley

 - Avenger

 - Stormclad

 - Stormclad

 - Thorn

 - Squire

Storm Lances (max)

Captain Maxwell Finn

Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress

I win the roll to go first and choose to do so.

The game involves a lot of posturing but I mess up and run 3 Lances too far forward into perfect Finn formation and Pat shanks them.

He camps 3 and hides behind two Clads.

I go for an assassination at this point as I'm now 3 Lances down for nothing.

I Dominate one of his Clads, Walk behind Haley and hit with the sword and Boxcars the Damage roll, good start.

This leaves her on 3 Boxes and with 2 focus. I am able to get one Lance Electro Leaps onto her forcing the focus to be spent but unfortunately I am unable to get more hits, the Clads go and I get one more hit but I could have potentially power boosted the hit roll and got her!

She Survives!

Pat then feats on me and kills all my toys aside from Haley and the Avenger so I go for the long Shot Dominate on his Avenger needing an unboosted 11 for it to hit followed by a 10, I get the 11 but roll a 6.

Then I get assassinated.

Assassination LOSS!

Thoughts:

I goofed on my first turn and it cost me big, I could have been safe by being more conscious of it.

It's a pretty weird mirror matchup and getting Pat down to 3 HP was nice, if lucky, and perhaps had I not tunnelled too hard I might have been able to get a boost and maybe finish Haley.

Three other games of the round are over relatively quickly and it turns out we are 2-2 so it's down to the final game.

You can read a report of it here:

http://arturoswarmachine.blogspot.ie/2016/07/wtc-practice-event-july-2016-round-3.html?m=1

So we lose the round 3-2 unfortunately:

(me)Cygnar Vs Cygnar - LOSS

Legion Vs Trolls - LOSS

Menoth Vs Legion - LOSS

Circle Vs Ret - WIN

Trolls Vs Circle - WIN

Overall it was  a good event with lots of skilled players and it’s a shame we lost out to our sister team.

The next day before heading home I got in another Calandra game , still points up but slightly different:

(Calandra 1) Calandra Truthsayer, Oracle of the Glimmerwood

 - Rok

 - Troll Bouncer

 - Dire Troll Bomber

 - Trollkin Runebearer

 - Troll Axer

Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (max)

 - Stone Scribe Elder

Sons of Bragg

Trollkin Champions (min)

 - Skaldi Bonehammer

I decide I might as well take Caine out for a spin in this game as he's been on the tray all day yesterday.

I lose the roll and pick the side with the trench I can hide in.

I deploy the Blades and Lances opposite the beasts and Caine and the Trenchers go right with the Jacks in the middle.

Anto Runs up turn one remembering to put fury on the stone.

The Blades and Lances run up, Blades minifeating and getting Arcane Shield. I move up and use the defender to snipe out the Spray Son of Bragg, make my could wall and sit tight.

The Bomber Kills two Lances and Starcrossed goes up, the Bomber has bullet dodger.

I put a couple of blades and a Lance into the Bomber but my dice combined with Starcrossed mean I don't really get much done, Caine moves up into the trench and takes shots at Champs, killing half.

The Rok and the Axer clear out the Blades around the Bomber who then kills my objective with a couple of champs assisting.

Calandra moves into the Zone and Anto scores 3 CPs.

I am really on the back foot so Caine feats to clear out a load of Trolls and hits the bomber a few times, landing grievous and leaving it on 3 Boxes.

The Blades charge in getting a 4 man CMA at MAT 12, not double 1s, 1,1,3 under Starcrossed......

I put some more models into the zone but Shoot the defender instead of moving it in.

Calandra moves up, feats and starts to befuddle models out of the zone and kill a few more with her dagger, Rok and the Bomber do plenty of work as the Bomber has a box in each aspect left.

With his last attack he kills Finn and a Stormblade to clear the zone and go to 5 CPs.

Scenario LOSS!

Thoughts:

Having a couple of extra champs on the board is pretty good! Cheats always beat!

I probably should have counter deployed to kill his infantry with the Lances and left the Blades to go and swing at things.

Caine can’t leverage himself as much in this matchup in terms of killing power, he can apply grievous but Starcrossed is really bad for a list with no hit buffs.

I should have been more focused on the zone and stopping Scoring, the Jacks can advance and still boos hits.

I'd like to play the matchup again, I think I understand it better.

Overall I had a great weekend, four excellent games a lots of practice.

I also had donuts, they were delicious.

There’s a tournament Saturday and I'm probably bringing the Toilet Man himself, Darius. Will see how that goes, I might just switch to Haley2 at the last minute.

WTC is drawing near.

The WTC planning is in full swing, last week the flights and hotel were booked for the Thursday night in Amsterdam.

If you are travelling for the WTC and want to hang out with the majority of Team Ireland on the Thursday, let me know so we can do that!

  

I played a couple of games recently, I was hoping to get in one more on Saturday but I helped run a Battlebox game instead, who knew they took 3 hours.

  

My full 75pt game I got was against Legion, I wanted to try out a Siege list:

(Brisbane 1) Major Markus "Siege" Brisbane

 - Defender

 - Charger

 - Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator

Journeyman Warcaster

 - Charger

Storm Lances (max)

Tempest Blazers (max)

Rangers

Gun Mage Captain Adept

Captain Maxwell Finn

Pete was plying Lylyth1:

(Lylyth 1) Lylyth, Herald of Everblight

 - Naga Nightlurker

 - Nephilim Bolt Thrower

 - Ravagore

Blighted Nyss Raptors (max)

Grotesque Assassin

Grotesque Assassin

Strider Deathstalker

Strider Deathstalker

Grotesque Banshees (max)

Blackfrost Shard

Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew

Annyssa Ryvaal

Blighted Nyss Shepherd

I ended up going second, choosing the side with a hill and trench.

Pete Ran everything up

I moved up and got in a foxhole, using a couple of Rangers to help shoot two Raptors with Siege and the Defender.

Pete took some shots and killed all but two of the rangers and was able to clear out 3 of the Lances with a combination of shots. He also jammed his Raptors into my Siege bunker

I attempted to use Finn to clear out the two Raptors that were near Siege and the two Chargers but he couldn't hit anything. I had to use a Storm Lance and Jr to clear them out.

I moved forward, dropping the foxhole and feated, able to take some good shots into his beasts but I missed the first ground pounder on the Ravagore meaning that I had to use my reload shot on it.

I managed to Kill the Bolt thrower and put some serious hurt onto the Ravagore with my Charger shots.

The Ranger leader also failed to hit the Raptor engaging the Defender and Neither Jr or the Gun Mage Captain Adept could remove it, then the Defender missed its boosted attack roll as well.

Pete then feated and was able to parasite Siege and his remaining army killed him.

Assassination Loss

Thoughts:

I probably shouldn’t have got so greedy with the feat or just held it and shot normally, it probably would have been okay once the Raptors were dead.

Being unable to clear out the Raptors jamming was annoying and I ended up having to use a lot of resources to do so.

Gunfighter Grotesques that are SPD 7 are pretty good, Stealth and Force Barrier really helps them.

I'd like to try this list a few more times and see how it goes.

A couple of days later I'd arranged another game against a fellow Dan who was playing Khador.

I dropped Caine2:

(Caine 2) Captain Allister Caine

 - Defender

 - Hunter

 - Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator

Storm Lances (max)

Stormblade Infantry

 - Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard

Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

 - Captain Jonas Murdoch

 Journeyman Warcaster

 - Charger

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

And he selected Sorscha1:

(Sorscha 1) Kommander Sorscha

 - Behemoth

 - Juggernaut

 - Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator

Winter Guard Mortar Crew

Winter Guard Rifle Corps (max)

 - Winter Guard Rocketeer (3)

Widowmaker Scouts

Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich

Widowmaker Marksman

Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

 - Koldun Kapitan Valachev

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Kell Bailoch

Dan opted to go first so I selected the side with a hill.

Turn 1 he rolled a hard 11 on a widowmaker and managed to cripple the Hunters gun arm.

The rest of his force pushed up.

I moved Eyriss up to Disrupt behemoth, tried to get the hunter to shoot the mortar from the hill but he missed with his crippled arm.

The Lances ran up as did the Blades who got Arcane shield. Caine hid in a little objective/defender/charger bunker with Heightened Reflexes on.

Dan took some Widowmaker shots, removing two Lances. He then went for a freezing grip on them with Sorscha but missed and then wind rushed back.

Kell killed two Blades and the Riflemen did a couple of CRAs to kill one more and tough another (I just realised Iron Zeal stops Knockdown). The rockets all try and Blast Damage Eyriss, fail to do that but Kill another Storm Lance.

Looking at the board I can see Sorscha is within 4" of both Dan's objective and Behemoth and both are within Caines walk/shoot range.

I concoct a plan to Kiss Behemoth with Aiyana and then feat with Caine and bounce shots onto Sorscha as well.

I move up with Aiyana and 1,1 the Kiss roll so I change plans and go all in on Sorscha.

Caine gets reloaded, moves up and doesn’t feat.

He shoots the objective and trick shots onto Sorscha, does this 7 times and after that she is dead with 2 shots let.

Assassination Win

Thoughts:

Heightened Reflexes sort of protects Caine from being casually assassinated but it’s not great having to keep it on him.

I think Sorschas list is pretty advantaged into my poor squishy Storm blades as he has 8 Sniper shots a turn and the Rockets are great at killing Storm Lances, especially with the Joe boost.

The Caine list probably wants clouds, and I'm very tempted to drop the bloaty support (Eiryss and Aiyana and Holt and Jonas) to bring in some trenchers for the clouds.

(Caine 2) Captain Allister Caine

 - Defender

 - Hunter

 - Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator

Journeyman Warcaster

 - Firefly

Stormblade Infantry

 - Stormblade Infantry Storm Gunner x2

 - Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard

Storm Lances (max)

Trencher Infantry (min)

Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

Captain Maxwell Finn

I need to get my hands on a Firefly, I'm waiting on the Battlebox to be available to me.

Finn is flexible, he could be a couple of Rifle Grenades and 1 more Storm Gunner but he's pretty good and I'm willing to give him another chance.

He could even be the max Trenchers, this is all a bit flexible and just needs testing.

This weekend we are having an Irish WTC Team practice up in Dublin, I think I'm going to bring the above Caine2 and Haley2.

Caine doesn't end up doing as much heavy lifting but he is hopefully more survivable and his army should make it into combat without getting completely shot to pieces.

Haley is there for the Madrak2, Butcher3 and other bricks.

I'll see how that goes.

Tournament Time

On Saturday I ran a small Steamroller at the local shop to usher in Mk3's Street Release.

Unfortunately this release has had some serious stock issues that have caused woes for a lot of shops across the world. It's a shame that people couldn’t get the toys they wanted but it means that Mk3 is pretty popular.

I had two lists for the weekend:

(Haley 2) Major Victoria Haley

 - Avenger

 - Stormclad

 - Stormclad

 - Thorn

 - Squire

Captain Arlan Strangewayes

Storm Lances (max)

Ragman

(Caine 2) Captain Allister Caine

 - Defender

 - Hunter

 - Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator

Storm Lances (max)

Stormblade Infantry

 - Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard

Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

 - Captain Jonas Murdoch

 Journeyman Warcaster

 - Charger

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

Before the event kicked off I got in a game on the Friday evening as I was putting up a few travelling gamers from Dublin.

 This game was against Conor playing Madrak2 and the following list:

(Madrak 2) Madrak Ironhide, World Ender 

 - Mulg the Ancient 

 - Pyre Troll 

 - Troll Axer 

 - Trollkin Runebearer 

Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (max) 

 - Stone Scribe Elder 

Trollkin Warders (min) 

Janissa Stonetide 

Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew 

Feralgeist 

Trollkin Fennblades (max) 

 - Fennblade Officer and Drummer

Fennblade Kithkar

Fell Caller Hero 

I'm not 100% this is correct as I can’t remember exactly what support models he had and all the trolls look the same.

This list is 2 points shy so I'm probably missing something.

I opted to play Haley2 into it.

I won the roll and elected to go first.

Conor picked the side with some rolling fog to hide behind and no inconvenient forest.

I unpacked by running everything up with the triple TK and reaction drive move.

Conor Ran everything forward and sat Madrak on Janissas hill with all the warders and fenblades surrounding him.

I then setup some Charges with the Storm Lances and sent the Clads in after the Avenger got a good Knock down shot off that was shield guarded into the back of his lines.

I pushed Haley up onto the flag and feated. There were two fennblades left alive, both knocked down, and 1 warder had died.

I managed to catch most the models under the feat.

Conor then used Madrak to trigger a Warpath Mulg by throwing his Axe at a Lance to move Mulg into melee with Both Stormclads, charged in Janissa and did a bunch of damage with an armour pierce.

Then Mulg was able to kill one clad but didn’t come close to crippling anything on the other.

Warders and the remaining models moved up to gather around Madrak and Conor passed the turn, I scored 1 CP.

Madrak was now stood with 6 Grim Salvation Targets 2 of which were Warders and 2 were Gobbers, camping 3.

I set about engineering some Lance charges into the screening Models, one killed a Warder and Knocked down the Fenblade next to Madrak (tough) The other killed Janissa and the two gobbers.

They reposition so that one is engaging Madrak but not the Knocked Down Fenblade but is also within 3" of where Ragman will end up being.

2 Grim Targets left.... Thorn then runs across the board and Haley Arcs a TK through him into the warder that is over 1" away from Madrak moving him out of Grim range, 1 valid target left.

This is where I cheat and TA both the Clad and the Avenger, which is against the rules of course as TA can only be cast once, but the Avenger is able to hit the Knocked Down Fennblade on the first shot (not Snakes with a Future Sight boost if needed).

This Knocks down Madrak who is now being Dark shrouded by the Storm Lance. The Clad now walks in staying in Mulgs melee range and beats Madrak to death, with 2 focus left to spare.

Assassination Win

Thoughts:

Madrak2 is really scary, if that Pyre is a Bouncer I'm not sure how I win this game, perhaps I have to TK and Timebomb Madrak and hope the Jacks don't miss, I can probably send in the Avenger as well to apply some sword.

Thinking about the above, it’s not that bad if I can land both of those, 4 for time Bomb, 2 for TK, 2 on the Avenger none on the Clad. Have 1 spare to boost/future sight a spell and have Arlan power boost the final one on the Clad.

Storm Lances are great, they are so good at killing most everything in the game, and reposition is awesome.

Pre Measuring also allows for great little tricks like the Ragman/AoE/Engaging plan.

Playing against Madrak2 again I’d probably stick to the same strategy, kill the important screening models, feat to control and stay over 6" away from Mulg under feat.

So after that game it was bed time in preparation for the tournament Saturday.

I show up early to get things setup and do the pairings, because of drops I'm playing and get paired against one of the Dublin lads, Sean, playing Cygnar.

Now it's my fault that I persuaded him to play the below list the night previous and offered him the toys as well.

(Sloan 1) Captain Kara Sloan

 - Avenger

 - Defender

 - Dynamo

 - Hunter

 - Hunter

 - Hunter

 - Hunter

 - Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator

Captain Arlan Strangewayes

I select Haley2 and lose the roll so pick a side with good access to a hill and with my flag behind a building.

Sean runs everything turn one.

I do the TK and Reaction drive trick, cast Decel and move Haley forward.

Sean assassinates me.

Assassination loss

Thoughts:

Well I was useless, I don't even know what I was doing unpacking like that, I'm going to put this one down to just having not thought about my plan, and I really should have castled up behind the Building or Rocks and waited.

It seems like an okay matchup for Haley although I reckon she probably just loses 2 Jacks a turn to the shooting and this probably isn't enough to win the game.

With that over I have plenty of time to go and heckle other players and watch other games happening, as well as get scenario elements ready and take results.

Round 2 I am paired up against Keith playing Khador, he has Butcher3 and the new caster, Kozlov. One list has a lot of Doom Reavers in that will make short work of Haleys jacks so I opt for Caine figuring I can probably just try and assassinate Butcher3 as his list only has 3 heavies.

Keith picks Kozlov:

(Kozlov 1) Lord Kozlov, Viscount of Scarsgrad

 - War Dog

 - Juggernaut

 - Juggernaut

 - Juggernaut

Doom Reaver Swordsmen

 - Greylord Escort

 Doom Reaver Swordsmen

 - Greylord Escort

 Doom Reaver Swordsmen

 - Greylord Escort

Doom Reaver Swordsmen

 - Greylord Escort

Unfortunately due to the late hour the night before when Keith was writing his list he didn't realise that Kozlovs spell that provides pathfinder and steady was battle group only.

He didn’t realise this until his turn 1.

I lost the roll and elected to have him deal with the big forest, I also wasn't aware of the spells failings at this point.

Keith goes first and runs two units up and the other two have to run around the forest as well, making two channels. His battle group and caster, run through the forest.

Caine moves up on the right and starts to trick shot Doom Reavers, he manages to kill a whole pile, the rest of the army does the same and I have removed two full units and two models from another unit.

Keith is able to get 2 charges on Storm Lances and runs the rest of his force, the two Storm Lances die.

Caine kills the remainder of the Doom Reavers whilst killing a heavy with his feat and the rest of the army takes care of another heavy and the remaining infantry, leaving Kozlov 1 Jack and the War Dog.

To try and score APs Keith goes on a Pacman with Kozlov into the Stormblades and kills all but 3, the Juggernaut gets 2 but 1 lives.

I then assassinate Kozlov with the Charger.

Assassination Win

Thoughts:

Keith’s list was unfortunately not built with the Synergy he had in mind working which meant he was in trouble from the start.

Caine2 probably wins the matchup regardless, being able to kill plenty of toys himself easily, unless there are a lot of tough rolls.

The rest of the army can stay safe enough with the predictable threat ranges and the Storm Lances chew through the Doom Reavers as well.

Another short game and I continue to wander about and watch the other games that are ongoing.

My final round I am paired against Fergus who is playing Ret, Issyria and Garryth, both lists have a decent number of infantry and I reckon Caine probably has a decent shot (geddit).

Fergus selects Garryth:

(Garryth 1) Garryth, the Blade of Retribution

 - Banshee

 - Aspis

 - Moros

 - Madelyn Corbeau, Ordic Courtesan

Houseguard Riflemen (max)

 - Houseguard Rifleman Officer & Standard

  - Soulless Escort

Dawnguard Sentinels (max)

 - Dawnguard Sentinel Officer & Standard

 - Soulless Escort

Arcanist Mechanik

Arcanist Mechanik

Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios

Mage Hunter Assassin

Houseguard Thane

House Shyeel Magister

I think the list is right, there might be some discrepancies, I'm not all that familiar with Ret and the pictures I have don’t have enough detail.

I win the roll to go first and elect to do so.

Fergus picks the side with a small forest and obstruction.

I run everything forward, putting concealment and Arcane shield on the Lances and Bullet Dodger on Caine and sit on the hill.

Fergus advances cautiously and take a pot shot at a Lance doing 1 damage. The Sentinels get apparition

I decide that I'm going to try and take out one of his lights.

The Charger and Hunter and Defender do decent Damage to the Aspis and Caine throws out some shots as well finishing the Aspis and starting on Moros, trick shotting into threatening sentinels to avoid vengeance, he then Gatecrashes behind the objective.

One Lance gets a Charge into Moros and does a decent amount of damage. The rest of my models run up and position in the trench.

Moros is able to beat a Lance to death, another dies to a 9 man CRA. A couple of Sentinels charge and do decent Damage to the Hunter and some points on the Charger, the rest run and engage some models.

The Banshee Knocks down the Defender. Garryth moves up behind the objective and Madelyn does her Parley.

I stand the Defender up and realise the Charger is out of Jrs control. I use a number of shots to start clearing the Sentinels that are in the zone and the Lances finish off Moros as well as a number of Riflemen with Impacts and assaults.

Aiyana tries to walk in and kiss the Sentinels but misses, Holt kills two and Jonas gets one.

Caine moves up to the edge of the zone and puts 9 shots into the objective, trick shotting into Garryth each time at dice -4 and he's camping 3.

The dice aren't very good and I miss a shot and the damage doesn't really spike much so I leave him on 4 boxes.

As I've cleared the Sentinels and the Defender took care of Madelyn two Stormblades are able to charge in, the Leader and Officer, they assault and miss but then CMA at MAT 10 needing 7s, get it and squish Garryth.

Assassination Win

Thoughts:

Had I not gone for the Assassination I probably could have just taken the game via attrition, instead using Caine to kill all the remaining infantry.

If It had failed I think Caine was fairly safe where he was as well and Garryth wasn't in a position to do much as he would be on low health.

Of course I could be wrong and an assassination may have been engineered, who knows.

With time running out the tournament had to be finished at 3 rounds, as planned, and I finished somewhere in the middle of the pack.

At least I didn’t get the beautifully handcrafted wooden spoon.

Overall I'm happy with how I played 3 of the 4 games, the Sloan game was a disaster for me and I recognise that.

I'm happy with how both lists performed and I'm looking forward to testing them and more options in the future.