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!