R2GC Qualifier Tournament (75 points) recap

After a successful campaign with the Legion of Everblight in the Journeyman League and Tournament (won the tournament, was 7-2 in the league), I brought the Skorne back out for some big-game action this past weekend.  I'd only played at the 75 point level three times prior, once with Legion and a lot of proxies, and twice to help Angelo practice with his trolls for this event.

I had two lists, but only played one.  It consisted of pMakeda, 2 Gladiators, a Bronzeback, a Cannoneer, Molik Karn, a Cyclops Brute, full Cetrati, full Praetorian Swordsmen, full Beast Handlers, TyCom & Standard, 2 Void Spirits and an Agonizer.  I liked playing "the beef" aka 5 heavies, especially with roughly half of the field playing collossals/gargantuans and some of them playing two in one list.

Round 1:  Adam (Khador /  pVlad)

Adam had a pair of Conquests, 2 units of mechanics, full Kayazi and full nyss hunters, plus widowmakers and a wardog (probably more that I'm forgetting).  He's also one of the best players in Orlando.  As we start the game, he remarks that my list is as close to a hard counter to his as there is.  Sure enough, on third turn, after his Conquests kill off my Cannoneer and Bronzeback, the rest of my beasts and the TyCom wreck both of the Conquests.  What followed was a lot of jamming, frenzies, and eventually, pVlad BoK'ing up and getting on my caster.  When I can't kill him, he kills Makeda.  I realized that there was a good play I missed doing that involved slamming my Brute over Vlad with a Gladiator before Molik went to play, but only noticed the idea too late.  Moral victory in destroying 2 Colossals, but a loss.

Round 2:  Chris (Legion / eVayl)

Chris had double ravagore, double angelius, seraph, full hex hunters (no ua) and a bunch of other stuff.  I've played a few games using eVayl, so I know some of the tricks and think I'll be okay.  As Chris put it, this game really came down to two rolls of the dice more than anything else, and both were 9's.  The first was a frenzy check on his last remaining angelius on his turn 3.  It failed, frenzied and stayed sitting right next to Molik Karn, having not done an armor-piercing attack.  The second was a damage roll against a Blackfrost Shard member with eVayl's Oculus.  This was exactly what was necessary to kill the dude, denying eVayl an arc node close enough to put 3 Obliterations into my fury-less caster.  Win by scenario victory, but Chris only had eVayl and a single legionnaire left on the board, where I'd only lost a few infantry and my Brute.  

Round 3:  JP (Cygnar / Siege)

I go fury-free on my caster on turn 2 or 3, he foxholes my titans in front of her and blows her away with his feat and 2 rocket shots.  Not my finest hour.

After that, someone had dropped, so I dropped as well (way out of contention for winning) to keep the numbers even and prevent a bye round.  

Fun tournament, tough to play that many points in a short time.  Most games had less than 10 minutes left per side on the deathclocks.  Will seeing that many fully painted armies actually motivate me to get my painting hands in gear and active?  Only time will tell!

Journeyman tournament recap

So I played in a 35 point Hordes/War Machine tournament up at Dogs of War Gaming last night.  I played my Legion of Everblight, kicked some ass and took first place!  Had a damn good time, played against opponents new and old, and generally had an awesome time.

I played:
Absylonia
Scythean
Ravagore
Raek
Naga Nightlurker
Shredder x4
Forsaken x2
Pot o' Doom (min unit)
(Tier 4 Absylonia list...I had a 2nd list, which was a pLylyth list more slanted towards killing Colossals, but the only guy who had them chose not to play to keep even numbers in the tournament, so I never played the list.)

Quick round by round breakdown:
Round 1:  Vs Jesse, playing Shea T4 (Mercenaries)
Jesse is newer to War Machine, but already knows a lot of the tricks.  It helped us both that I have played pirate mercs in the past (and they haven't seemed to have changed much since mk1), with respect to catching a few mistakes in process, and knowledge of the models as a whole.  As for the game, Jesse got deathclocked :(  He had a lot of models, and I was putting serious effort into killing the ones that mattered rather than the masses.  He did sneak a pirate through to charge my 'lock, but didn't do enough damage.  A fun game, and a good one too.  And bonus points for having his stuff painted!

Round 2:  Vs Rob, playing Ossyan (Retribution)
The dreaded elves.  How I hate them.  Turn 1, I move the Scythean forward.  He feats, and shoots the crap out of it, but due to some bad rolls (Ossyan and like 4 of his MHSF missed, needing 5s or less to hit...suck ass for him!), it survives and is fully healed by my feat on my turn 2.  Also on my turn 2, I drop a ravagore aoe on his phoenix and catch Ossyan, doing a big chunk of damage and setting him on fire.  On Rob's turn 2, he rolls for fire and I have the unfortunate displeasure of explaining why his focus (he had 3 camped) disappeared before the damage roll for fire.  He rolls his own damage, and rolls exactly what he needed for his caster to die.  Not how I ever like to win, but that's how the dice fall sometimes.  He says he had my caster dead that turn too.  We'll never know... ;)

Round 3:  Vs Allyn, playing Calandra (Trollbloods)
Great game against a (I think?) newer player with a superbly painted force (partially).  The downfall of this game for him came from a single mistake, and he spotted it the same time I did.  He moved a Fell Caller to the middle of the board to buff units...and ended up placing it directly between my Scythean and his Earthborn Dire Troll, preventing his charge.  He ends up moving it forward, and I'm able to charge it next turn.  I also am able to clear up a big group of pygmies with my pair of Forsaken.  Game ends with me down 3 shredders and him with Calandra, and a scenario win (only one of the day for the entire tournament, IIRC).

Overall, awesome tournament.  Great to see new people playing, and playing with painted models.  I'll have to check to see if there were any pictures taken.  Definitely gives me some motivation to get my own stuff painted.

I loved the list I played, and would play it again happily in the future.  It was my first time playing the Ravagore, and he's amazing.  I'm not used to playing ranged beasts/jacks that are worth a crap, and the Rav is awesome.  I expect to be playing him more in the future.

Legion is fun to play.  I like warbeasts, and being able to run eight of them with a 6 fury 'lock is mindblowing and awesome.  Hell, being able to bring eight in a 35 point list is awesome.

That's all for now.

A very full doghouse...

But not in the "sleeping on the couch" way!

I participated in a Warmachine / Hordes tournament at Dogs of War Gaming yesterday. It was the biggest miniatures event that the store has hosted in the 5+ years its been open, with 22 players. I played Skorne, and finished 3-2, for 6th place (losing to the eventual 2nd and 4th places).

List 1: Morghoul
Master Tormentor Morghoul
*Titan Gladiator
*Molik Karn
*Cyclops Brute
*Aptimus Marketh
Gatormen (max)
Paingivers (max)
Paingiver Task Master
Feralgeist

List 2: Tyrant Xerxis
Tyrant Xerxis
*Bronzeback Gladiator
*Titan Gladiator
Cataphract Cetrati (max)
Praetorian Swordsmen (min)
Paingivers (min)
Tyrant Rhadiem


Round by round breakdown:
R1 : Ross (Gatormen / Caliban)
Round 1 involved two zones and an explosives cache, both of which could be used to score points. On turn 3, I took the cache with Morghoul, feated, blew up a unit of Farrow Bonegrinders, jammed his beasts with my TG and Brute, and cleared the zone I could score on with Molik Karn, netting me 2 of the 3 points needed. Ross worked on a caster kill as best he could, but with no forcing on his beasts, he couldn't kill my beasts to get away and contest when the caster kill via spells didn't get there. Win by scenario.

R2: Chris (Retribution / Ossyan)
Round 2 was a scenario involving a large control zone and a flag, and you had to be touching the flag to score points in the zone. The flag also did a big hit and knockback to everyone touching it when points were scored. I've never played this scenario before, and it showed. I played Xerxis, and split my forces equally to both the flag and the zone. Chris murdered the hell out of my army, and won on the scenario (though he could have killed Xerxis on his last turn as well). It was a good lesson in what not to do in scenario play heh. Chris was a great opponent, and gave me some pointers about my list afterwards as well. Also, his army was really well painted!

R3: Matt (Khador / pButcher)
Round 3 was some scenario, but I don't even remember. This was sadly not a fun game for either of us. Matt's dice went ice cold on turn 2 (the turn he feated, of course) and the only hits he got on that turn were 2 shots with Holt, who did minimal damage to Molik Karn, and a manhunter, who "killed" the same gatorman twice, and I made both tough checks. He moved in on Molik Karn with a heavy 'jack, and I Admonition'd away to a clear charge lane to the Butcher that he couldn't block with any of his remaining models. MK did his thing on my next turn and that was that. Rough game. Won by 'caster-kill.

R4: Ed (Khador / pIrusk)
Two zones again, this time with reserves. Ed had a Devastator in his zone and my Gladiator was too far away to go bowling. However, I had a feralgeist to hold my zone, and only Irusk could kill it in his army. This was a hard fought slugfest, ending with my gatormen abusing their rerolls against an Iron-Fleshed Irusk to finally kill him, after I killed everything but the Devastator. Won by 'caster-kill.

R5: Justin ( Cygnar / Siege)
Two zones and reserves. He wrecked most of my army with me doing moderate damage back. Pivotal moment involved a Titan Gladiator trampling across terrain (gogo Rush!) to be in b2b with Siege. Usually a game-over for the opponent. Not today. Check control range....half an inch out of control range. Not for lack of trying, had to move Morghoul around terrain. Maybe moving through would have been better, but I don't think so. So no more forcing, no more attacks, TG just sits there. And gets murdered by a centurion next turn. Played out another turn, (where Justin comedically could not hit a fury-naked Morghoul with anything, even several boosted hits) but I was out of ways to kill Siege. Good game, tough loss. Justin got the scenario victory here.

Lots of fun had by everyone, the usual great spirits involved with a WM/H tournament - competitive, but friendly. Awesome to see everyone remembering that its still a game. My first time playing with the "death-clock" variant, and I like it a lot. Keeps the pressure on to make moves, and to not over-think things.

Also, picked up eHexeris and assembled him on Sunday morning. Big tournament is usually a motivator to get painting....we'll see!

The Starting Block...

Some interesting facts about me:

• I have way too many hobbies.
• I enjoy all of my hobbies way too much to give any of them up.
• If I blog about my hobbies, I tend to be more productive, especially if I think people are paying attention.

To elaborate, I'm a gamer of many types. I'm a roleplayer, both table-top and live action. I'm a miniature wargamer, focused on Warmachine/Hordes and Malifaux. I'm a card player, mainly World of Warcraft TCG. I'm a foam-sword-fighter. Hell, I'm even getting more into board games these days.

Currently, I want to focus on painting miniatures some more. In the past two years, I have only painted maybe a dozen or so models. In the past, I have painted way more than that and I'd like to get back to it. I'll probably set some kind of goals in that direction sometime soon. For now, that's all.