[Lost Hemisphere Challenge 2013] 2nd tournament report
It's been a good period for my wargaming recently. I've been getting some decent painting time in, and I've even managed to get some games of Warmachine in! At the end of last month I went to a 35pt tournament at Highlander Games in Dundee, and yesterday I travelled to my second tournament of the year. This time the format was a 50pt Steamroller, with reinforcements for all games and deathclock.
I really enjoyed playing with reinforcements under Steamroller 2012, so was pleased to get the chance to break them out again. I was also looking forward to trying deathclock timing for the first time, having only ever experienced timed turns. In the end it was a small tournament, only 8 players, but a lot of fun.
My lists were as follows:
The Dragon Slayers Tier 3
Lich Lord Venethrax Warwitch Deneghra
- Seether - Ripjaw
- Slayer - Ripjaw
- Nightwretch - Cankerworm
- Nightwretch - Skarlock
- Skarlock Full Bane Thralls
Full Mechanithralls Warwitch Siren
- 3 Brute Thralls Warwitch Siren
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls Gorman di Wulfe
Full Black Ogrun Boarding Party Pistol Wraith
Full Bloodgorgers Pistol Wraith
Gerlak Slaughterborn Withershadow Combine
Pistol Wraith Minimum Blackbane's Ghost Raiders
Pistol Wraith Saxon Orrick
Bloat Thrall
Reinforcements: Revenant Cannon Crew
Harrower
Reinforcements:
Minimum Satyxis Raiders
- Sea Witch
Satyxis Raider Captain
Machine Wraith
I stuck with Deneghra as my second warcaster, and expanded on my 35pt list from the last tournament. There are some unusual options in there - the Bloat Thrall and Cannon Crew were picked to try and take advantage of the feat, as they're some of the few shooting options that I've got. I considered Revenant Crew instead of the Blackbane's unit, and Rengrave instead of Saxon Orrick, but thought I'd do something different.
Game 1: Into the Breach vs Becky Barton (Morvhana2)
Becky was playing a fairly typical Morvhana2 list: a pair of Warpwolf Stalkers; a Gorax; a Druid Wilder; Full Wolves of Orboros with UA; full Skinwalkers with UA; a pair of Gallows Groves; dual Shifting Stones (one with UA); a Gatorman Witch Doctor, and Morraig for her reinforcements. I chose Venethrax.
She won the roll-off, and elected to go first, setting up fairly centrally and untroubled by the large wood that was there. I used the full width of the flank deployment zone, with the Mechanithralls on the flank to run around and hold up Morraig when he arrived. The Bloodgorgers went centrally to go for the zone, with the Boarding Party on guard duty.
(Setup for Game 1. I was second player, and hampered somewhat by the building and swamp. (Credit: David Brown)
Becky's first turn was fairly standard, and so was mine. The Skarlock put Soul Harvester on the Bloodgorgers, who ran forward to toe into the zone. Everything else ran as well, except for Venethrax who put up Dragon Slayer and walked. Gerlak and the Seether went the long way around the house.
The end of my first turn. (Credit: David Brown)
Becky's second turn was similarly uneventful. She edged forwards to get one of the Wolves into the zone, but out of charge range. She cast zombify on the Wolves as well, so I was definitely out of range, as I wouldn't get my bonus charge distance for the Bloodgorgers. Everything else positioned itself for the next turn, and the alpha strike. She did, however, forget to bring in Morraig, which was fortunate. In response I upkept Dragon Slayer, gummed up the end of her reinforcement line with the Mechanithralls, shoved half the Bloodgorgers into the zone, keept the other half back with Gerlak, and wandered everything else up to position. I sent the Seether wide left, but probably too far in hindsight. The Harrower appeared on the flank and sent a shot towards the Shifting stones, but the scatter wasn't kind to me and missed everything.
The end of my second turn. Gumming up the zone, but there's a lone
Wolf of Orboros preventing me from scoring. (Credit: David Brown)
Turn 3 saw the first skirmishes of the game. Becky remembered Morraig this turn, bringing him in and attacking the Mechanithralls, killing a few. The Wolves of Orboros charged in and killed a lot of Bloodgorgers, and everything else repositioned. She forgot to activate the Witch Doctor though, so the Wolves were living once more. On my turn I upkept Dragon Slayer, cast Soul Harvester on the Bloodgorgers to get some souls, and retaliated. Gerlak went on a rampage, killing over half of the unit of Wolves and a shifting stone, whilst the Bloodgorgers killed most of the rest of the Wolves, leaving only the standard alive (hiding at the back). The Mechanithralls continued to hold up Morraig, but I also sent some of the unit up onto the hill to threaten. One of the Pistol Wraiths snuck through for a couple of shots at the Skinwalkers. I still couldn't score though, thanks to a single skinwalker toeing the zone. I moved the Slayer up to shield Venethrax, and continued to send the Seether out wide. This time the Harrower connected, but did no damage.
In Turn 4 Gerlak went down to the Skinwalkers, as did most of the rest of the Bloodgorgers. A lot of the Mechanithralls evaporated as well, and the two Warpwolf Stalkers took out both my Slayer and some of the Black Ogrun. Morvhana also feated, bringing back all of the Wolves. These were positioned to get in the way of the Seether/Harrower pair threatening her left flank, and to annoy the Black Ogrun. The Pistol Wraith that had turned corporeal was taken down too. I was running out of models very quickly. But I saw an opening.
I upkept Dragon Slayer, and gave one to my left Nightwretch. I then moved went about trying to clear out the zone as best I could. The Bloodgorgers failed to take down the Skinwalkers, and the remaining Pistol Wraith moved up to take some potshots at Morvhana, missing completely thanks to her concealment. Then the Mechanithralls charged; the Brute Thrall went for a Shifting Stone, pulping it, whilst one Mechanithrall went for the Stone UA. Two charged the Skinwalker in the zone, doing some damage, and the last two who weren't keeping Morraig occupied ran up the hill out of the way. The Nightwretch then ran forward to get in Morvhana's grill. Finally, I took a risk with Venethrax. I moved him up to get the Nightwretch in control, leaving my right hand side completely open. But I knew that the Stalker there was going to frenzy (having been primalled the turn before). I had enough focus for a single, fully boosted Hellfire. I hit Morvhana, and did 16 point of damage. With the self-inflicted wound she'd taken, it was enough to take her down.
The 'end of the game'. Victory by spell assassination (Credit: David Brown)
However, the eagle eyed among you might notice that in the picture above Morvhana is sitting on two fury. Both Becky and I forgot about it in the heat of the moment; she conceded/we shook hands, and we started chatting about the game. The TO then wandered by, and said 'why didn't you transfer?', at which point Becky and I looked at each other in surprise. Woops! I was quite happy to carry on, as I felt that I'd cheated her. But she said that she'd conceded, we'd shaken hands, it was her fault for forgetting such a basic rule, etc. We played it out a bit just to see what would happen, and it looked bad for me, but it went down as my victory. I don't feel that I earned it though, and hope I get to play Becky again. It was a close fought, fun game.
Game 2: Supply and Demand vs Mark McNaught (Irusk2)
My second game was against Mark, who had Sorscha1 and Irusk2 with fairly similar armies. He picked Irusk2, and I went with Deneghra. In hindsight I should have stuck to my guns and gone with Venethrax. However, he'd been talking about how his AOE's chewed through the Terminus infantry horde that he'd played in round 1, and I saw heavy armour, so second guessed myself.
His list was Irusk2, a Spriggan, Black Ivan, Sylys, a Gun Carriage, Yuri, Eiryss2, minimum Doomreavers with UA, a Koldun Lord, Aiyanna and Holt with Valachev, and Harlan Versh. His reinforcements were a maximum unit of Kayazy with the Underboss. I won the roll and picked table edge, so Mark chose to go first.
I had a couple of hills, so set Deneghra up to take advantage of the one on my left (with Gorman in attendance), and the shooting elements ready to take the one on the left. The Blackbane's went on the left flank, and everyone else was central. Mark set with Irusk and most of the solos to take the woods on his left, Yuri and Eiryss heading for the woods on his right, the heavy armour in the middle, and the Doomreavers to cover the zone.
Setup for my second game agains Mark (Credit: David Brown)
Mark's first turn was pretty short. He ran the Doomreavers forward to take up position in the zone, the warjacks up the middle, and Irusk (with all of his attendant solos) into the small woods. Yuri loitered, and Eiryss ran forwards. The Gun Carriage moved up and shot my objective to bits.
I thought fairly hard about what to do in response. I ran the Blackbane's forward to threaten Eiryss, moved the Cankerworm sideways out of charge range of the Doomreavers, and ran up one of my Ripjaws and a Siren to bolster that flank. I then edged Deneghra forwards and reflexively dropped Gorman's cloud on her head. The Cannon Crew and Pistol Wraiths went up onto the other hill, and the rest of my troops moved up into the big space between the two hills, but staying out of the zone. The Bloat Thrall launched an AOE at the Doomreavers, not doing much but corroding one.
The end of my first turn, just before it all started to go horribly wrong. (Credit: David Brown)
Mark's response was brutal. Aiyana gave the Gun Carriage magical weapons, and it blasted all but two of the Blackbane's off the table. Black Ivan moved up and destroyed all three of the Cannon Crew members with a focus from the Koldun Lord. The Kayazy moved on to the table, charged the Cankerworm and the Ripjaw and did some damage to both. The Doomreavers charged in as well, destroying the left Ripjaw and taking out a couple of Bane Thralls as well. Then Eiryss ran up to prevent me from allocating to the Cankerworm. Irusk and his buddies continued to hang out on the edge of the woods. Finally, the Spriggan moved into the zone, since he'd left it undefended.
Oh dear. I was hurting badly, and under a lot of pressure on my left flank. But thankfully we were running Deathclock, so I could really take my time to figure out what I wanted to do.
Putting the pressure on with my reinforcements. Mark was somewhat surprised by their appearance. (Credit: David Brown)
I started by bringing on my reinforcements, running the Satyxis forward to engage Harlan Versh and pressure Irusk, Sylys, Aiyana, Holt, Valachev, and the Koldun Lord. I also ran the Machine Wraith up to distract Black Ivan from the Pistol Wraiths, one of who Death Chilled the Spriggan. The other shot down a Doomreaver. The Cankerworm flailed ineffectually, the remaining Blackbane's Raiders couldn't hit the Kayazy, and the Siren on that flank missed as well with her spray. I tried to take out Eiryss with the Withershadow, but missed and killed my own model with the rebounding spell. The Bloat Thrall missed completely, and Saxon Orrick couldn't kill the Doomreaver he hit. The Bane Thralls charged in and did a little damage, killing a Doomreaver and a Kayazy, but couldn't do much with the poor dice rolls I was getting. I ran my second Ripjaw up into the zone to get a bead on the Doomreaver UA, but I was also worried about Deneghra so moved her sideways (staying inside the Killbox), and cast venom at him. Naturally I failed to kill him, so finished my turn by dropping another cloud her on head.
The end of my second turn. Spot the mistakes.... (Credit: David Brown)
At the start of his 3rd turn, Mark immediately popped Irusk's feat and backed away from the Satyxis. He then tried to airburst them, but forget about the immunity to blast damage. So he shot a couple with Holt, and attacked them with Harlan but missed. Black Ivan backed away and blasted the Machine Wraith. Then the Kayazy mini-feated and charged Deneghra; he managed to get six of them surrounding her, and promptly cut her down. Loss by assassination.
Woops! That's a lot of swords, and Deneghra's squishy. Didn't see that one coming! (Credit: David Brown)
I didn't play well at all this game, but Mark did, and capitalised on my mistakes. I should really have deployed Deneghra further towards my right flank, and done more to prepare for his Kayazy. I also should really have done more with Deneghra; I feel like I'm out of practice with her, and haven't made enough use of her spell list in my recent games.
Game 3: Process of Elimination vs Ross Shivers (Kromac)
This was a game that was somewhat dictated by the terrain setup. But it was also a lot of fun, and I think just beats game 1 for the best of the day. The table was dominated by two large buildings, which were beautiful, but really difficult to deal with. We agreed that they would be rough terrain, and that the access points were limited to models of specific base sizes. The two of them were at either end of the zones, and just overlapping with them. Around the sides were three forests that had the effect of constricting access points further, whilst the centre of the table was pretty much clear.
Ross was playing Kromac and Kreuger. I picked Venethrax, whilst he plumped for his Kromac list which contained Kromac, 2 Warpwolf Stalkers, Ghetorix, a Gorax, a Druid Wilder, 2 units of Woldstalkers, 2 units of Shifting Stones (1 with the UA), and Swamp Gobbers. His reinforcements were a full unit of Bloodtrackers with Nuala. Ross won the roll-off, and elected to pick table side. He thought about it for a bit, then picked the side on which the building had a large central opening.
The end of my first turn. The terrain is really hampering my force at this point, but
wasn't so much of a problem for the Circle army. (Credit: David Brown)
This forced me to split my forces to go around the other building. I deployed the Black Ogrun, Mechanithralls, and Necrosurgeon on my left, along with one of the arcnodes. Venethrax and his battlegroup went as far to the right as the flank deployment zone permitted, but were still behind the building and would spend a turn going around it. The Pistol Wraiths went in the centre, planning to take advantage of incorporeal to go straight through the building. Finally, the Bloodgorgers and Gerlak advance deployed between the right-hand side of the building and the forest on my right flank. On the opposite side of the table, Ross deployed his shifting stones up front behind the building, along with the Swamp Gobbers. One unit of Woldstalkers went on each flank, whilst Kromac's battlegroup went centrally, with most of the warbeasts aimed at the gap opposite the Bloodgorgers.
Both first turns were fairly standard. I ran everything forward, spreading out as much as could whilst avoiding the terrain. Dragon Slayer went on Venethrax as usual. Ross countered by pushing his Woldstalkers around the building on either side, the unit on my right taking up station in the forest. The shifting stones and Gobbers moved into the centre of the building, then Kromac and one of the Stalkers skulked about in the cloud, with Ross putting up Warpath. The other warbeasts then moved up to face off against the Bloodgorgers.
This is a couple of turns later into the game, but Kromac basically hadn't moved. Too scared to face me,
or sensible play? You decide. (Credit: David Brown)
At the start of Turn 2 I upkept Dragon Slayer, and brought on my Harrower, positioning it to try and take down some of the Woldstalkers. I then jammed as hard as I could on the left flank, throwing all of the Mechanithralls up towards Ross' end of the left-hand zone. The Necrosurgeon and Stitch Thralls hung out behind, and the Black Ogrun took up position in the forest. The Nightwretch over on that flank edged around the building. One of the Pistol Wraiths stayed in the building, whilst the other moved up behind an obstruction to threaten Kromac. The jam tactic was then repeated in the right-hand zone, although I didn't move up as far with the Bloodgorgers, and kept the front rank level with the objective. I was wary of the Warpwolves opposite, but this meant that my Seether was forced into the forest, which wasn't ideal. The Harrower charged in and managed to kill a couple of the Woldstalkers.
The end of my second turn. Full-on jamming in progress on the left flank, with a more cautious advance on the right.
My force is still split in half though. (Credit: David Brown)
Then Ross' turn 2 happened, and it all went downhill a bit. The Woldstalkers on my left flank killed some of the Mechanithralls, before the rest were taken out by a combination of a berserk Stalker in their midst, and the Bloodtracker reinforcements. The spear throwing ladies also murdered the Black Ogrun, and sniped out the Necrosurgeon for good measure. At the end of the turn my left flank consisted of two Stitch Thralls, two Mechanithralls engaged with the Stalker, and the Nightwretch hiding at the back. On my right, Ghetorix scrapped the Harrower and retreated into the forest, whilst the second Stalker and the second unit of Woldstalkers thinned out my Bloodgorgers a little. Kromac continued to hang out in the building, upkeeping Warpath, and the Swamp Gobbers put down smoke on top of the Stalker on my left.
The start of my 3rd turn. Where did my left flank go? o.0 (Credit: David Brown)
At the start of my third turn, I was looking for a way to get ahead on scenario. I was too far from Kromac to do any serious damage, and Ross was going to be able to score control points very easily in his net turn in the left-hand zone. Fortunately for me, Ross had left the other zone almost completely clear. The only contesting models were the objective, and the Shifting Stone UA which was toeing into the zone at the edge of the building.
After allocating 1 to the Slayer and upkeeping Dragon Slayer, I started with distraction tactics. The left hand Nightwretch shuffled around to get into cover and toe into the zone. The two Pistol Wraiths then abandoned their cover, and moved up into the centre. I took some potshots at Kromac, and I think hit him once, but did little damage. With all of that out of the way, the Bloodgorgers ran/charged. I managed to get one to the Stonekeeper, which fortunately was able to kill him. Three managed to get on the objective, doing some damage to it, and the rest cleared some charge lanes. Gerlak then charged into the Shifting Stones chilling in the woods, taking down a stone and two Woldstalkers before I accidentally triggered a free strike from Ghetorix, which put him into the dirt. The Slayer then charged the objective, destroying it with a combo-strike and netting me one CP. Venethrax then walked into the zone to dominate, putting me on a total of 3 CP. I finished the turn by running the Seether, putting it between Ghetorix and the models in the zone.
End of my 3rd turn. The table looks a little better now, and I'm up 3-0 on CPs. (Credit: David Brown)
Ross was under a bit of pressure now. He upkept Warpath, then the Bloodtrackers went to work again, destroying one left Nighwretch, the two Stitch Thralls, and one of the now corporeal Pistol Wraiths. The Stalker then warped berserk, killing the Mechanithralls and destroying the objective. Ghetorix destroyed the Seether with ease, and used a Warpath move to retreat slightly into the forest. The Woldstalkers took revenge on the Bloodgorger who killed the Stonekeeper, and then Kromac moved towards the right-hand zone a little and dropped an AOE on the trolls in the centre of the zone, killing one and creating some rough terrain. The 2nd Stalker charged into the Slayer, but somehow wasn't able to destroy it after some terrible luck with the dice. It did take out one of the arms and the movement though. Finally, Ross toed the Gorax into the zone, next to a wall for cover. On ending his turn, Ross scored a second CP for controlling the left-hand zone. 3-2.
All I had to do was kill the Stalker and the Gorax, or move them out of the zone, and I had the game. I again upkept Dragon Slayer, and allocated one to the Slayer, which shuffled around the Stalker and did a bit of damage with it's remaining weapons. I then tried to do some damage to the Gorax with my remaining Pistol Wraith, but I just couldn't hit it. Ross had positioned it very well, so it was gaining cover and was very difficult to shift. Venethrax charged the Stalker, and despite some poor rolls of my own managed to kill it. It did take all of my focus, so I was glad of the fury that I stole on its demise! I then elected to camp. It was a toss-up with casting a boosted hellfire at the Gorax, but after the failure of the Pistol Wraith I wasn't able to do enough damage to kill it. The Bloodgorgers weren't going to be able to help either, as they were hampered by rough terrain, and the ones in range were knocked down after tough rolls. I therefore tried to position as many models as possible between Venethrax and Ghetorix. Still 3-2.
The end of my 4th turn. Rassin frasssin Gorax! I'd have won if it wasn't for that meddling warbeast!
I just couldn't come up with a way to get rid of it though. (Credit: David Brown)
Sadly it was not to be. The Gorax charged in to take out one of the Bloodgorgers and the Pistol Wraith, giving Ghetorix a Warpath move. The two remaining Bloodgorgers in the way then fell to Bloodtrackers, and Ghetorix charged in to seal the deal.
It was a great game, and the terrain set-up really made the two of us think about how we were deploying and maneuvering our armies. It was fun to play on a more interesting, thematic table rather than the standard tournament-style layout. Ross was another great opponent, and a very skillful player. who knew his list inside out, so I'm pleased that I managed to come so close to beating him.
Ghetorix takes down Venethrax. So close, yet so far. C'est la vie. (Credit: David Brown)
Final standings
In the end I finished in 6th place with a 1-2 record and 3 control points. Not too bad, but I was so close to finishing much higher. It was a fun tournament, and nice to try out 50pts for a change. Most of my games have been at 35ts, and moving up a step was a great experience; it feels like a different game. Deathclock was also a welcome addition, particularly in my second game where I took a long time to play my second turn. At the start of the day I still felt pressure form the clock, but that disappeared by the end of the game, and I never got low enough on time for it to return. I think that for my play style and current skill level, it's better than timed turns.
I think that my current version of Venethrax's theme force is less than optimal at 50pts, but I'm hamstrung a little by my model collection. Adding the second Seether would definitely help, as I never allocated more than one focus to the Slayer for fear of dropping Venethrax's stack too low. A second Necrosurgeon would also be even more welcome at this level than at 35pts, and splitting the Mechanithralls down to a pair of minimum units might also work better. I never really got to flex the muscles of the Black Ogrun this tournament, so I can't say much about how well they work.
I don't see myself getting in many more games in the near future, as I can't make the next couple of local tournaments. But I think I'm starting to get a handle on Venethrax, and how he should be played.
Comments
Post a Comment