[Wargaming] Guardians of Tyr (Milton Keynes): Steamroller - 17/05/2014
Last Saturday I travelled down to Milton Keynes for my third Warmachine tournament of the year. Like the last one I went to (in Northampton) this was organised by the Guardians of Tyr, and was a 35pt standard steamroller event. This time around though there was no Divide and Conquer in play, so no need to play each list, and the event was a little bigger - 24 players rather than 16 thanks to the extra space in the Milton Keynes branch of Wargames Workshop. After my bad form in the last two tournaments I attended, where my record was 0-7, I was really hoping that I'd at least get one win in. But in some ways that was a secondary goal - my main aim was to have fun, be a good sport, and try to give my opponents an enjoyable experience playing me.
My lists were almost entirely unchanged from the Northampton tournament, with just a single 1pt change in the Skarre list where I swapped out the Machine Wraith for a Brute Thrall to give the Mechanithrall unit a little more staying power. My lists were therefore:
Lich Lord Venethrax Pirate Queen Skarre
*Helldiver *Cankerworm
*Helldiver *Skarlock
*Skarlock Max. Satyxis Blood Witches
Max. Satyxis Raiders *Blood Hag UA
*Sea Witch UA Max. Soulhunters
Max. Bloodgorgers Min. Blackbane's Ghost Raiders
Min Bane Thralls Min. Mechanithralls
Gerlak Slaughterborn *Brute Thrall UA x1
Pistol Wraith Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Satyxis Raider Captain Darragh Wrathe
Saxon Orrick
Game 1: Benji Hanson (Khador) - Destruction
You can read Benji's impression of the game at his blog Impending Doom.
Benji had Butcher3 and Sorscha1. I was worried about the Sorscha1 list, as I wasn't sure that either of mine would deal particularly well with it. I was also slightly concerned about my Skarre list vs Butcher3. Its gameplan is to get up the opponents face fast and force them to deal with a lot of incorporeal, but that just seemed like it would play into the Butcher's hands with his ability to pull people in and his magical weapon. So I went with Venethrax - I'm generally more comfortable with that list anyway, so it was a little bit of comfort against the unknown.
Dun dun dun! Butcher3 alert! Benji had a really nice paint job on him. (Credit: David Brown)
Benji picked Butcher3, and had the following:
Butcher3
*Berzerker
Min. Iron Fang Pikemen
*Black Dragons UA
Min. Iron Fang Uhlans
Doom Reavers
Min. Boomhowlers
Great Bears
Gorman di Wulfe
He won the initiative and elected to go first. The board was fairly symmetrical, with a hill on each players left flank and a linear obstacle on their right about half way to the zone. There was a wood on one side of the board, but I didn't see it playing much of a role (I was right), so I just decided to stay where I was.
Deployment for Game 1 against Benji - Venethrax vs Butcher3 in destruction. (Credit: David Brown)
Benji deployed Butcher, his Argus, and the Berzerker front and centre. The Pikemen went opposite my flag with Gorman, with the Uhlans out wide on my left. Boomhowlers and the Great Bears went on my right to defend his objective. I put the Bloodgorgers, Gerlak, and Pistol Wraith in the centre to try and take the zone, with Venethrax angled to take advantage of the linear obstacle and the Bane Thralls on my right flank to go for his objective. Advanced deployment saw his Doom Reavers go behind his linear obstacle, whilst I put the Satyxis front and centre.
Turn 1 saw Benji jam the Doom Reavers straight into the zone, with the rest of the army following behind to set up for future turns. Boomhowlers came over the hill, followed by the Great Bears, Butcher3 came straight at the zone on full camp with his retinue of dogs and Berzerker, the Black Dragons took the wall, and the Uhlans swung around on the flank. I had a fairly standard first turn with Venethrax - put up Dragon Slayer and advance, ending up safely behind the wall. The Helldivers burrowed towards the middle of the board, and the Bane Thralls went up the right flank to stare down the opposing trolls. I then dithered for a while about charging the Satyxis, eventually deciding to do so after using Desperate Pace from the Captain to make sure. I also put Soul Harvester on them to grab a few tasty souls. I managed to get off several charges, but the unit was pretty spread out, and they killed about half of the opposing Doom Reavers. I then panicked after looking at my clock, and rather haphazardly ran my Bloodgorgers, Saxon, Gerlak, and the Pistol Wraith into position.
Turn 2, and Benji started to apply the hurt. The remaining Doom Reavers cleared out a few Satyxis, and the Pikemen came in to clear out some more. Butcher edged closer to the zone, getting the Argus into contest along with the Berzerker. Boomhowlers came up past the end of the zone to threaten Venethrax, and the Uhlans continued to swing around the flank. Upkeeping both Dragon Slayer and Soul Harvester, I used the Satyxis to clear out the rest of the Doom Reavers, but failed to kill any Pikemen. I also managed to kill off half of Boomhowler's trolls using a combination of Bane Thralls and a Helldiver. The Pistol Wraith managed to get a Death Chill off on the Berzerker, and the Bloodgorgers ran to get in the way of the Uhlans, and to contest the zone. I was very wary of getting Venethrax anywhere close to the Butcher, so he stayed in his fort.
Turn 3, and it all started to go wrong. The Boomhowlers killed off 2/3rds of the Bane Thralls, the Uhlans charged to kill a couple of Bloodgorgers. Then the Butcher went, and using a combination of Impending Doom, Flashing Blade, and his feat, killed off most of the remaining Satyxis, including the Sea Witch, the Pistol Wraith, and four Bloodgorgers. The Pikemen finished off the Satyxis, Gorman tried to Black Oil Gerlak using the objective as a target, and the Great Bears ran into the zone. It was starting to look bad at this point, but I was still loathe to commit Venethrax given how close the Butcher was. I allocated three to one of the Helldivers, which attempted to slam the Berzerker out of the zone; unfortunately I rolled a 1 on distance, so he was still toed in. But I did some decent damage, and compounded it with the remaining Bane Thralls while the other Helldiver killed off another Boomhowler troll. The Captain charged into the Great Bears but failed to kill any of them, Saxon popped a shot at Butcher but didn't do any damage, and the Bloodgorgers just continued to get in the way and be annoying. I charged Gerlak into one of the Argus, but as usual he missed his charge attack.
Turn 4 saw the Uhlans, Pikemen, and Butcher kill off all but one of the Bloodgorgers and the Captain, while the Great Bears scrapped the Helldiver that charged the previous turn. The Berzerker killed the last two Bane Thralls, and promptly blew up. I was down five models. Upkeeping Dragon Slayer, the remaining Helldiver killed Boomhowler himself (Benji had terrible luck with his tough rolls all game), Saxon again shot Butcher for no damage, and the Skarlock moved up to try a Hellfire which missed. I was pretty sure that we were running out of time, and decided that my only chance was to go for a control point by destroying Benji's objective. Suddenly I realised that I'd cocked up - I needed pathfinder for Venethrax to charge it over the wall he was hiding behind, and I'd already activated Saxon. D'oh! Instead I was forced to advance and chuck a Hellfire at it, which did minimal damage. In reply, Benji charged Venethrax with the Great Bears and put him into the dirt.
Dice down was called shortly afterwards, so I made the right choice to go for the objective. I just screwed up the plan! In hindsight I'm not sure I had distance to make the charge anyway. Benji played a really solid game, capitalising on my mistakes and making none of his own that I could see. I was probably over-cautious with Venethrax having only read about Butcher3's assassination capability, and it hurt me. I also (again) forgot to feat with Venethrax. I'm not sure that it would have made much difference, but it might have helped a little bit.
0-1, 0 CP, 12 AP destroyed
Lessons learnt:
*Remember to feat!
*Don't be too cautious
*Pay attention to order of activation.
Game 2: James Atkinson (Trollbloods) - Process of Elimination
Chatting with James as we got sorted out before the game I found out that he was a fairly new player, and that this was his first tournament. Much like me before I took the plunge, he'd been apprehensive about it being super-serious, and very strict. But he said that he'd been pleasantly surprised so far by how much fun he'd had, and how friendly the atmosphere had been.
James was running Madrak, and possibly Doomshaper? Or Borka? I honestly can't remember. I looked at both of his lists, saw a lack of magical weapons, and immediately went for my Skarre list. James picked the following:
Chief Madrak Ironhide
*Troll Bomber
*Troll Impaler
*Pyre Troll
Full Trollkin Fennblades
*Trollkin Sorceror
Full Krielstone Bear & Scribes
*Stone Scribe Elder
Dannon Blythe & Bull
James won the roll and chose to go second. The board had a wood alongside one of the zones, and a wall along the outer edge of the other. There was a second wall between the zones at one end, and a long, curved hedge further back from the opposite end of the zones. I chose the side with the wall at the end of the zones, as it was closer to the action for Skarre.
I deployed the Soulhunters and Darragh on my right flank to take one zone, with the Bloodwitches aimed at the other zone with Blackbane's unit poised to go through the wood. Skarre went behind the wall, with the Mechanithralls just to her left and the Necrosurgeon spread out behind. James deployed fairly compactly; the Fennblades were behind the hedge, with Madrak to their left (my right). The warbeasts were poised to come into the zone opposite the Soulhunters, with the Krielstone behind them, and Blythe & Bull on my left flank. For advance deployment, I put the Cankerworm up towards the wall supporting Darragh and the Soulhunters.
Turn 1 was pretty standard from my point of view. The Soulhunters ran as far forward as they could, getting well up into the zone on my right. The Blood Witches and Blackbane's ran up into the left zone, the Mechanithralls congregated at the end of the wall, and the Necrosurgeon/Stitch Thralls spread out for corpse collecting efficiency. Skarre ran up the wall on full camp, Cankerworm shuffled up next to her, Darragh walked up, popped Death Ride to shift the Soulhunters further forward, and then used his light cavalry move to toe into the zone. The Skarlock snacked on a Mechnithrall, giving my five extra focus for turn 2. In response, James advance the Fennblades up to the hedge, with Blythe & Bull in attendance. Madrak advance up behind the Fennblades and put Snipe on the Bomber, who promptly blew up two Soulhunters with bombs. The Impaler skewered a third. The Krielstone moved up behind the warbeasts.
I felt like I had the upper hand on scenario, and wanted to keep the pressure on. The Blood Witches popped their minifeat and ran, filling James' end of the left zone with incorporeal bodies. Blackbane's unit also ran, and managed to engage Bull and a Fennblade. The Mechanithralls ran up into the centre of the board, with the Necrosurgeon and her Stitch Thralls again aiming for maximum corpse collection. One was sacrificed to the Skarlock for three focus. Then I charged the two remaining Soulhunters into James' beasts. One made it to the Bomber, one to the Pyre, both sadly only at reach distance. However I spiked the damage roll on the Bomber, doing ridiculous damage and taking out his mind. The other Soulhunter rolled less well, but still destroyed the Pyre Troll's mind.
James wasn't really sure what to do with the Bloodwitches and Blackbane's ghosts. With the result that he didn't really do anything. He took a swing at one with the Sorceror but missed. Blythe and Bull managed to sneak around the side when I missed my free strikes. Then he made a crucial mistake. He forgot to activate Madrak before activating his light beasts, so didn't heal the Pyre. The Impaler killed one Soulhunter, and the Pyre killed the second. Then we realised that the Pyre's xx was still out, so he shouldn't have been rolling two dice. As nothing else had gone yet, we re-did the attacks with the result that the Bomber was still engaged. So rather than bombing the objective and probably scoring a control point, he had to use it to kill the remaining Soulhunter (after healing the heavy Troll's wounded aspect). I think that whole sequence flustered him a little, as the Fennblades and Krielstone didn't really do anything.
I'd had a bit of luck with James' mistake, and set about capitalising. Allocating three to the Cankerworm, Skarre cast Dark Guidance and feated for five damage. She then ran as far up into the middle of the board as she could. The Cankerworm charged the right objective, easily taking it out with focus to spare. Darragh moved up, popped Death Ride to move the Mechanithralls, and stayed in the zone. The Mechanithralls then charged, with two hitting the Bomber and two the Pyre; both easily went down under the feat-powered combo-strikes. I left the Brute Thrall in the centre of the board to block Skarre from Madrak and the Fennblades. On the left, Blackbane's unit charged in, taking out Bull, the Sorceror, and a couple of Fennblades to create more ghosts deep in James' line. The Bloodwitches moved up to the edge of the zone; I was trying to get close enough to the hedge to stop James moving his models over it, but far enough to be out of reach range. We went to 2-0 on CPs.
As James started his turn I suddenly noticed that his Impaler wasn't engaged, and if he moved it around the Mechanithralls he had a shot at Skarre. Fortunately he didn't see it, and used the Impaler to kill a couple of Mechanithralls instead. The Krielstone scribes killed a couple more, and Blythe managed to kill Blackbane himself. Madrak didn't do much of anything. Then the Fennblades went, and James managed to get three over the hedge amongst the Blood Witches, with another three charging the Brute Thrall. Miraculously he lived, and James was only able to kill a couple of corporeal Ghost Raiders and a single Witch with the rest of the unit thanks to Skarre's feat. We went to 3-0 on CPs, as he couldn't get into the right zone to contest.
I had an easy route to win the game - run Skarre into the zone to dominate for 2 CPs. Or I could destroy the other objective for 1 and continue to control the right zone for 1. But I completely lost sight of the goal, and got greedy going for APs. Skarre cast Dark Guidance and camped. The Brute Thrall killed a couple of Fennblades (after Darragh used Death Ride to move him back into command range), and the Blood Witches took out several more thanks to the Blood Hag cancelling tough. The Ghost Raiders achieved nothing. Then I realised what I'd done - no dominating with Skarre, and no Blood Witches to attack the remaining objective so that my zone clearing was for nought. I left Cankerworm in the zone, and we went to 4-0 on CPs. Just after James started his turn, dice down was called. I score a 5th CP with endgame scoring.
James was a great opponent with a beautiful army (it put my silver horde to shame), and the game was played in a really friendly manner. Although the failure to heal his beast seemed like it was a turning point, I don't actually think it was that important. He would probably have killed the objective, yes. But I was in a great position at that point to control the zone and put massive pressure on his right flank, as I did. This Skarre list is just a tough match-up for Trollbloods, particularly if it goes first. It's fast, it's incorporeal heavy, and on the key turn it can be very hard to dislodge. We had a nice chat over the lunch break that followed the game, and I hope to see James at more tournaments in the future.
1-1, 5 CPs, 36 APs destroyed
Lessons learnt:
*Don't get greedy - keep track of the scenario situation
Turn 1 saw Benji jam the Doom Reavers straight into the zone, with the rest of the army following behind to set up for future turns. Boomhowlers came over the hill, followed by the Great Bears, Butcher3 came straight at the zone on full camp with his retinue of dogs and Berzerker, the Black Dragons took the wall, and the Uhlans swung around on the flank. I had a fairly standard first turn with Venethrax - put up Dragon Slayer and advance, ending up safely behind the wall. The Helldivers burrowed towards the middle of the board, and the Bane Thralls went up the right flank to stare down the opposing trolls. I then dithered for a while about charging the Satyxis, eventually deciding to do so after using Desperate Pace from the Captain to make sure. I also put Soul Harvester on them to grab a few tasty souls. I managed to get off several charges, but the unit was pretty spread out, and they killed about half of the opposing Doom Reavers. I then panicked after looking at my clock, and rather haphazardly ran my Bloodgorgers, Saxon, Gerlak, and the Pistol Wraith into position.
Turn 2, and Benji started to apply the hurt. The remaining Doom Reavers cleared out a few Satyxis, and the Pikemen came in to clear out some more. Butcher edged closer to the zone, getting the Argus into contest along with the Berzerker. Boomhowlers came up past the end of the zone to threaten Venethrax, and the Uhlans continued to swing around the flank. Upkeeping both Dragon Slayer and Soul Harvester, I used the Satyxis to clear out the rest of the Doom Reavers, but failed to kill any Pikemen. I also managed to kill off half of Boomhowler's trolls using a combination of Bane Thralls and a Helldiver. The Pistol Wraith managed to get a Death Chill off on the Berzerker, and the Bloodgorgers ran to get in the way of the Uhlans, and to contest the zone. I was very wary of getting Venethrax anywhere close to the Butcher, so he stayed in his fort.
Game 1 - end of my turn 2. It doesn't look too bad at this point, but Butcher is looming. (Credit: David Brown)
Turn 3, and it all started to go wrong. The Boomhowlers killed off 2/3rds of the Bane Thralls, the Uhlans charged to kill a couple of Bloodgorgers. Then the Butcher went, and using a combination of Impending Doom, Flashing Blade, and his feat, killed off most of the remaining Satyxis, including the Sea Witch, the Pistol Wraith, and four Bloodgorgers. The Pikemen finished off the Satyxis, Gorman tried to Black Oil Gerlak using the objective as a target, and the Great Bears ran into the zone. It was starting to look bad at this point, but I was still loathe to commit Venethrax given how close the Butcher was. I allocated three to one of the Helldivers, which attempted to slam the Berzerker out of the zone; unfortunately I rolled a 1 on distance, so he was still toed in. But I did some decent damage, and compounded it with the remaining Bane Thralls while the other Helldiver killed off another Boomhowler troll. The Captain charged into the Great Bears but failed to kill any of them, Saxon popped a shot at Butcher but didn't do any damage, and the Bloodgorgers just continued to get in the way and be annoying. I charged Gerlak into one of the Argus, but as usual he missed his charge attack.
Game 1 - end of my turn 3. Things are starting to go downhill, and I've just had a demonstration of Butcher3's
power. Venethrax is hiding! (Credit: David Brown)
Turn 4 saw the Uhlans, Pikemen, and Butcher kill off all but one of the Bloodgorgers and the Captain, while the Great Bears scrapped the Helldiver that charged the previous turn. The Berzerker killed the last two Bane Thralls, and promptly blew up. I was down five models. Upkeeping Dragon Slayer, the remaining Helldiver killed Boomhowler himself (Benji had terrible luck with his tough rolls all game), Saxon again shot Butcher for no damage, and the Skarlock moved up to try a Hellfire which missed. I was pretty sure that we were running out of time, and decided that my only chance was to go for a control point by destroying Benji's objective. Suddenly I realised that I'd cocked up - I needed pathfinder for Venethrax to charge it over the wall he was hiding behind, and I'd already activated Saxon. D'oh! Instead I was forced to advance and chuck a Hellfire at it, which did minimal damage. In reply, Benji charged Venethrax with the Great Bears and put him into the dirt.
Game 1 - the end of the game. Venethrax gets taken down by the Great Bears after making a half-assed attempt
for the objective. (Credit: David Brown)
Dice down was called shortly afterwards, so I made the right choice to go for the objective. I just screwed up the plan! In hindsight I'm not sure I had distance to make the charge anyway. Benji played a really solid game, capitalising on my mistakes and making none of his own that I could see. I was probably over-cautious with Venethrax having only read about Butcher3's assassination capability, and it hurt me. I also (again) forgot to feat with Venethrax. I'm not sure that it would have made much difference, but it might have helped a little bit.
0-1, 0 CP, 12 AP destroyed
Lessons learnt:
*Remember to feat!
*Don't be too cautious
*Pay attention to order of activation.
Those aren't great odds for Venethrax. (Credit: David Brown)
Game 2: James Atkinson (Trollbloods) - Process of Elimination
Chatting with James as we got sorted out before the game I found out that he was a fairly new player, and that this was his first tournament. Much like me before I took the plunge, he'd been apprehensive about it being super-serious, and very strict. But he said that he'd been pleasantly surprised so far by how much fun he'd had, and how friendly the atmosphere had been.
James was running Madrak, and possibly Doomshaper? Or Borka? I honestly can't remember. I looked at both of his lists, saw a lack of magical weapons, and immediately went for my Skarre list. James picked the following:
Chief Madrak Ironhide
*Troll Bomber
*Troll Impaler
*Pyre Troll
Full Trollkin Fennblades
*Trollkin Sorceror
Full Krielstone Bear & Scribes
*Stone Scribe Elder
Dannon Blythe & Bull
James won the roll and chose to go second. The board had a wood alongside one of the zones, and a wall along the outer edge of the other. There was a second wall between the zones at one end, and a long, curved hedge further back from the opposite end of the zones. I chose the side with the wall at the end of the zones, as it was closer to the action for Skarre.
I deployed the Soulhunters and Darragh on my right flank to take one zone, with the Bloodwitches aimed at the other zone with Blackbane's unit poised to go through the wood. Skarre went behind the wall, with the Mechanithralls just to her left and the Necrosurgeon spread out behind. James deployed fairly compactly; the Fennblades were behind the hedge, with Madrak to their left (my right). The warbeasts were poised to come into the zone opposite the Soulhunters, with the Krielstone behind them, and Blythe & Bull on my left flank. For advance deployment, I put the Cankerworm up towards the wall supporting Darragh and the Soulhunters.
Turn 1 was pretty standard from my point of view. The Soulhunters ran as far forward as they could, getting well up into the zone on my right. The Blood Witches and Blackbane's ran up into the left zone, the Mechanithralls congregated at the end of the wall, and the Necrosurgeon/Stitch Thralls spread out for corpse collecting efficiency. Skarre ran up the wall on full camp, Cankerworm shuffled up next to her, Darragh walked up, popped Death Ride to shift the Soulhunters further forward, and then used his light cavalry move to toe into the zone. The Skarlock snacked on a Mechnithrall, giving my five extra focus for turn 2. In response, James advance the Fennblades up to the hedge, with Blythe & Bull in attendance. Madrak advance up behind the Fennblades and put Snipe on the Bomber, who promptly blew up two Soulhunters with bombs. The Impaler skewered a third. The Krielstone moved up behind the warbeasts.
Game 2 - the start of my 2nd turn. Time to jam like crazy. (Credit: David Brown)
I felt like I had the upper hand on scenario, and wanted to keep the pressure on. The Blood Witches popped their minifeat and ran, filling James' end of the left zone with incorporeal bodies. Blackbane's unit also ran, and managed to engage Bull and a Fennblade. The Mechanithralls ran up into the centre of the board, with the Necrosurgeon and her Stitch Thralls again aiming for maximum corpse collection. One was sacrificed to the Skarlock for three focus. Then I charged the two remaining Soulhunters into James' beasts. One made it to the Bomber, one to the Pyre, both sadly only at reach distance. However I spiked the damage roll on the Bomber, doing ridiculous damage and taking out his mind. The other Soulhunter rolled less well, but still destroyed the Pyre Troll's mind.
Game 2 - the end of my 2nd turn. See those Soulhunters in the top right - yep, triple sixes for damage on the Bomber! (Credit: David Brown)
James wasn't really sure what to do with the Bloodwitches and Blackbane's ghosts. With the result that he didn't really do anything. He took a swing at one with the Sorceror but missed. Blythe and Bull managed to sneak around the side when I missed my free strikes. Then he made a crucial mistake. He forgot to activate Madrak before activating his light beasts, so didn't heal the Pyre. The Impaler killed one Soulhunter, and the Pyre killed the second. Then we realised that the Pyre's xx was still out, so he shouldn't have been rolling two dice. As nothing else had gone yet, we re-did the attacks with the result that the Bomber was still engaged. So rather than bombing the objective and probably scoring a control point, he had to use it to kill the remaining Soulhunter (after healing the heavy Troll's wounded aspect). I think that whole sequence flustered him a little, as the Fennblades and Krielstone didn't really do anything.
I'd had a bit of luck with James' mistake, and set about capitalising. Allocating three to the Cankerworm, Skarre cast Dark Guidance and feated for five damage. She then ran as far up into the middle of the board as she could. The Cankerworm charged the right objective, easily taking it out with focus to spare. Darragh moved up, popped Death Ride to move the Mechanithralls, and stayed in the zone. The Mechanithralls then charged, with two hitting the Bomber and two the Pyre; both easily went down under the feat-powered combo-strikes. I left the Brute Thrall in the centre of the board to block Skarre from Madrak and the Fennblades. On the left, Blackbane's unit charged in, taking out Bull, the Sorceror, and a couple of Fennblades to create more ghosts deep in James' line. The Bloodwitches moved up to the edge of the zone; I was trying to get close enough to the hedge to stop James moving his models over it, but far enough to be out of reach range. We went to 2-0 on CPs.
Game 2 - the end of my 3rd turn. No more Bomber, no more Pyre Troll, and lots of extra Ghost Raiders. (Credit: David Brown)
As James started his turn I suddenly noticed that his Impaler wasn't engaged, and if he moved it around the Mechanithralls he had a shot at Skarre. Fortunately he didn't see it, and used the Impaler to kill a couple of Mechanithralls instead. The Krielstone scribes killed a couple more, and Blythe managed to kill Blackbane himself. Madrak didn't do much of anything. Then the Fennblades went, and James managed to get three over the hedge amongst the Blood Witches, with another three charging the Brute Thrall. Miraculously he lived, and James was only able to kill a couple of corporeal Ghost Raiders and a single Witch with the rest of the unit thanks to Skarre's feat. We went to 3-0 on CPs, as he couldn't get into the right zone to contest.
I had an easy route to win the game - run Skarre into the zone to dominate for 2 CPs. Or I could destroy the other objective for 1 and continue to control the right zone for 1. But I completely lost sight of the goal, and got greedy going for APs. Skarre cast Dark Guidance and camped. The Brute Thrall killed a couple of Fennblades (after Darragh used Death Ride to move him back into command range), and the Blood Witches took out several more thanks to the Blood Hag cancelling tough. The Ghost Raiders achieved nothing. Then I realised what I'd done - no dominating with Skarre, and no Blood Witches to attack the remaining objective so that my zone clearing was for nought. I left Cankerworm in the zone, and we went to 4-0 on CPs. Just after James started his turn, dice down was called. I score a 5th CP with endgame scoring.
Game 2 - the start of my 4th turn. Easy scenario win on the table, and I got greedy trying to kill the Fennblades. (Credit: David Brown)
James was a great opponent with a beautiful army (it put my silver horde to shame), and the game was played in a really friendly manner. Although the failure to heal his beast seemed like it was a turning point, I don't actually think it was that important. He would probably have killed the objective, yes. But I was in a great position at that point to control the zone and put massive pressure on his right flank, as I did. This Skarre list is just a tough match-up for Trollbloods, particularly if it goes first. It's fast, it's incorporeal heavy, and on the key turn it can be very hard to dislodge. We had a nice chat over the lunch break that followed the game, and I hope to see James at more tournaments in the future.
1-1, 5 CPs, 36 APs destroyed
Lessons learnt:
*Don't get greedy - keep track of the scenario situation
Game 3: Chris Tamplin (Khador) - Supply and Demand
I'd had a quick chat with Chris before the tournament started, and while the first games were getting set up (we were next to each other for Round 1), and he was a thoroughly nice chap. Like James, my previous opponent, this was Chris' first tournament. But more than that, he'd only been playing Warmachine for a couple of months. He'd only brought one list, featuring Butcher3, so I knew exactly what I'd be facing. I decided that my previous thoughts about the Skarre list vs. Butcher3 still applied, so threw down Venethrax again.
Chris' list was as follows:
Butcher3
*Beast -09
*War Dog
Max. Iron Fang Pikemen
*Black Dragon UA
Iron Fang Kovnik
Great Bears of Gallowswood
Ogrun Bokur
Eiryss1
Alexia2
There were some similarities with Benji's Butcher3 list that I'd faced earlier (the Pikemen and the Great Bears), but Chris' version was much heavier on the Mercenaries.
For the third time in a row I lost the roll-off, and got given the choice of table edge. I picked the edge with two sets of linear obstacles, one on each flank, rather than the side with a forest in front of half of the deployment zone. Chris put Eiryss behind that forest, with Alexia ready to flank around it. The Great Bears went on his right flank, ready to take up position behind the third set of linear obstacles, and everything else went in the centre. I put the Pistol Wraith opposite Alexia (which could potentially have been a big mistake), the Bloodgorgers in position between the two sets of obstacles, Venethrax and his Battlegroup just to the right of them, and the Bane Thralls and Saxon behind the linear obstacle on my right. The Satyxis Raiders and Captain were advance deployed right in the middle
Chris' first turn was fairly standard, with everything moving up. I don't think he cast anything with Butcher3, and crucially he was still a little way from the central zone. Alexia was threatening over on my left, but I had a plan to deal with her. I thought a little about what I wanted to do with the Raiders, but saw a way to get ahead on scenario right from the start. I therefore moved the Captain up, gave Desperate Pace to the Raiders, and then ran them the full 16inches across the zone. Going second meant that the front rank of the unit were already 16inches onto the board, so only 2inches from the closest point of the zone, so I was able to get them on the other side and right in Chris' face. I spread them out a bit, with some engaging the Argus, some engaging the front rank of Iron Fangs, and some positioned to stop the Great Bears getting into the zone. The rest of my turn was fairly standard: Soul Harvester on the Bloodgorgers, Dragon Slayer on Venethrax, and run everything forward.
Much as with the Satyxis jam, I think Chris was a little taken aback by my feat, and overestimated its power a little. But he did a lot of good work this turn, including using his own feat with the Butcher to clear out three of the Bloodgorgers, the Sea Witch, a Satyxis raider, and a Bane Thrall. The Great Bears accounted for another pair of Bane Thralls, and the Iron Fangs finished off the remaining Raiders but still couldn't get in the zone. Chris was having real trouble with congestion, and despite being well ahead at this point on attrition he just couldn't get anything moving up the board. As I said, I think that was partly thanks to my feat, as he seemed a bit worried about it. He did manage to get Butcher and his Argus in to contest though, so stopped the score getting any worse for him. Eiryss flailed ineffectually at the Bloodgorger engaging her, and Alexia did likewise at the Pistol Wraith.
My objective for Turn 3 was to kill the objective to go 2-0 up on scenario. After that, I just wanted to cause as much damage as possible, and continue to make Chris' life difficult as far as moving around the board was concerned. I dropped Soul Harvester, and after surfacing both Helldivers in good positions gave one of them 3, and the other 1. The latter charged the objective and destroyed it easily; objective achieved. The second Helldiver killed both the Iron Fang Kovnik and one of the Great Bears with back arc attacks. I then had a massive brain fart, and nearly screwed up big time. Venethrax charged my objective and put some serious damage into it. For some reason I thought that both were enemy, and I'm very glad that I didn't have enough focus to kill it! At least it got him slightly further away from the Great Bears, but that was nearly a monumental mistake. The slap-fight between the Pistol Wraith and Alexia continued, with Gerlak joining in and being similarly ineffective. The rest of my army jammed like crazy, with a second Bloodgorger joining in the "let's miss Eiryss each turn" game while the rest tried to protect Venethrax.
The comedy continued this turn, with both Alexia and Eiryss continuing to fail to kill their respective opponents. Both Chris and I were finding those combats rather funny, and they gave a good outlet for poor dice luck. Neither was particularly important by this point in the game, but keeping Eiryss tied up for so long had definitely helped me. The Bokur did kill a Bloodgorger, and Butcher3 used Impending Doom to drag four more to their deaths. The Argus and Iron Fangs killed off the last pair of Bane Thralls, but the Pikemen weren't able to destroy either of the Helldivers. Nor were the Great Bears able to kill Saxon, which really surprised me. Chris' last action of the turn was to run Beast-09 into the zone, and into a rather threatening position. Fortunately for me he was also blocking the Butcher's charge lanes somewhat.
My fourth turn was all about surviving. I hadn't expected to have Saxon still alive, but I was very glad that he was, as he but a couple of points on a Great Bear. Venethrax upkept Dragon Slayer and charged the Great Bears, killing one with the charge attack but then needing a further three attacks before the last Great Bear failed a tough roll. With boosting that left him on a single focus, and rather close for comfort to Beast-09. The Pistol Wraith, Gerlak, and Bloodgorger continued to miss Alexia and Eiryss, while the other remaining Bloodgorger charged the Argus closest to him, conveniently getting in the way of Beast-09's charge lane to Venethrax. The Skarlock didn't do much.
The end of the round had to be getting close, but Chris had at least part of a turn to try and kill Venethrax. Amazingly Eiryss managed to kill her opponent, at which both of us cheered! But Alexia still couldn't hit the Pistol Wraith, booooooo. Then came the important part of the turn. Butcher3 and His Argus killed the Bloodgorger in the way, and a full loaded Beast-09 charged Venethrax. Uh-oh. Then the incredible happened - a combination of poor dice on hit and damage meant that Beast-09 couldn't get the job done, and Venethrax survived! Dice down was called, and I'd somehow held on to win 2-0 on scenario!
Chris was a great opponent, incredibly friendly, clear with his movements and actions, and a pleasure to play against. We both had a laugh at the ineffectual combats on my left flank, and he was very sanguine about some of the really poor dice luck that he had all throughout the game. The number of times that he missed a roll by one point (mostly 7s on two dice as well) was amazing, but he never got frustrated by it. He admitted before the game that he didn't know what much of my stuff did, and despite the run through I gave him I still think that the Satyxis caught him out. That put him on the back foot, particularly when he started to get in his own way, but yet he still nearly pulled a win out of the bag.
2-1, 7 CPs, 43 APs destroyed
Lessons learnt:
*Jamming with Satyxis Raiders wins games.
*Don't kill your own objectives stupid!
*Don't waste Gerlak.
Game 4: Ricky Freed (Legion of Everblight) - Close Quarters
The fourth round of the game saw me back up ton table four, paired up against Ricky. We'd played for the wooden spoon last time out in Northampton, with Ricky's Haley2 list coming out on top against my Venethrax list. This time around he was playing Legion of Everblight, and had Thagrosh1 and Rhyas. I have to admit that I didn't really think about list selection for this game - I saw Everblight, and went for Venethrax. In hindsight that was a big mistake, as both of his lists had a lot of beef; the Thagrosh list was full of warbeasts, and the Rhyas list had three units of medium-based infantry. Skarre's feat would have given me a way around that, and I'm not sure that either list had much in the way of magical attacks to take on the massed incorporeal.
Ricky picked Rhyas, with the following list:
Rhyas
*Shredder
*Shredder
*Shredder
Max. Ogrun Warspears
*Chieftain UA
Max. Ogrun Warspears
*Chieftain UA
Max. Gatormen Posse
Gatorman Witch Doctor
Gatorman Witch Doctor
Ouch! That's a lot of wounds.
I went to four out of four roll offs lost, and Ricky chose to go first. I picked the opposite side to where I'd been for my game against Benji in Round 1. Ricky deployed a unit of Warspears on each flank, with an attendant Witch Doctor for each one. The Posse went in the middle, with Rhyas and her Shredders behind. I used my standard deployment: Venethrax and battlegroup central, Bloodgorgers just to the left, Bane Thralls, Saxon, and Pistol Wraith just to the right, Satyxis in front. With such a symmetric deployment from Ricky, there wasn't really any benefit to weighting one flank over the other, and the scenario didn't really call for it either - with the number of wounds on the other side of the table, getting to Ricky's flag was going to be all but impossible.
I'd had a quick chat with Chris before the tournament started, and while the first games were getting set up (we were next to each other for Round 1), and he was a thoroughly nice chap. Like James, my previous opponent, this was Chris' first tournament. But more than that, he'd only been playing Warmachine for a couple of months. He'd only brought one list, featuring Butcher3, so I knew exactly what I'd be facing. I decided that my previous thoughts about the Skarre list vs. Butcher3 still applied, so threw down Venethrax again.
Chris' list was as follows:
Butcher3
*Beast -09
*War Dog
Max. Iron Fang Pikemen
*Black Dragon UA
Iron Fang Kovnik
Great Bears of Gallowswood
Ogrun Bokur
Eiryss1
Alexia2
There were some similarities with Benji's Butcher3 list that I'd faced earlier (the Pikemen and the Great Bears), but Chris' version was much heavier on the Mercenaries.
Game 3 - partway through Chris' first turn, but you can see my deployment. The Satyxis are looming, and
Chris isn't very far up the board. (Credit: David Brown)
For the third time in a row I lost the roll-off, and got given the choice of table edge. I picked the edge with two sets of linear obstacles, one on each flank, rather than the side with a forest in front of half of the deployment zone. Chris put Eiryss behind that forest, with Alexia ready to flank around it. The Great Bears went on his right flank, ready to take up position behind the third set of linear obstacles, and everything else went in the centre. I put the Pistol Wraith opposite Alexia (which could potentially have been a big mistake), the Bloodgorgers in position between the two sets of obstacles, Venethrax and his Battlegroup just to the right of them, and the Bane Thralls and Saxon behind the linear obstacle on my right. The Satyxis Raiders and Captain were advance deployed right in the middle
Chris' first turn was fairly standard, with everything moving up. I don't think he cast anything with Butcher3, and crucially he was still a little way from the central zone. Alexia was threatening over on my left, but I had a plan to deal with her. I thought a little about what I wanted to do with the Raiders, but saw a way to get ahead on scenario right from the start. I therefore moved the Captain up, gave Desperate Pace to the Raiders, and then ran them the full 16inches across the zone. Going second meant that the front rank of the unit were already 16inches onto the board, so only 2inches from the closest point of the zone, so I was able to get them on the other side and right in Chris' face. I spread them out a bit, with some engaging the Argus, some engaging the front rank of Iron Fangs, and some positioned to stop the Great Bears getting into the zone. The rest of my turn was fairly standard: Soul Harvester on the Bloodgorgers, Dragon Slayer on Venethrax, and run everything forward.
Game 3 - the end of my first turn. Full jam with the Satyxis, and it's going to be hard for Chris to get into the zone. (Credit: David Brown)
I think that move with the Satyxis threw Chris a little - he'd asked me to go through my list before the game, as he didn't really know much about Cryx, which I was happy to do. But there's a difference between being told a unit can run 16inches, and seeing it in action! He pondered a little about what to do, and actually ended up not really doing very much. Alexia charged the Pistol Wraith and missed, Eiryss shot the Satyxis Captain, and the Iron Fang Kovnik missed the Satyxis Raider that he charged. The Iron Fangs also had trouble hitting the Raiders, even with CMAs (Chris was having really bad dice luck), but cleared out three in the end, the Argus cleared out a couple, and Beast-09 killed a sixth. Luckily for me they passed their command check. But what was even better was that Chris had Butcher boxed in behind his Argus and Beast-09, and ran out of time to activate the Great Bears. He didn't get anything into the zone, so the plan was still going well.
My second turn was all about consolidating the scenario advantage. I upkept both spells, and tried to kill Alexia with the Pistol Wraith but either missed or failed to break armour. Then the Satyxis Sea Witch called Power Swell, and charged into Beast-09. The rest of the Satyxis split up, with one charging the objective, one charging the Iron Fangs, and the other two shuffling around the Kovnik and the objective. I think I dinged Beast-09 for a point or two, doing a point of feedback to Buthcer3, but I wasn't able to kill the Kovnik, the Iron Fangs, or, crucially, the objective - it had five boxes left. Which meant no dominating the zone sadly. I did, however, flood the zone with Bloodgorgers and Bane Thralls. The latter I also tried to position to stop the Great Bears getting into the zone, and a Bloodgorger charged Eiryss but missed. Finally, Venethrax toed into the zone and popped his feat. I scored a CP, putting me 1-0 ahead.
Game 3 - the end of my 2nd turn, and I control the zone. Sadly the objective still lives, so no dominating for
Venethrax. But at least I remembered my feat this game! (Credit: David Brown)
Game 3 - the start of my 3rd turn. I think that's the most templates I've ever put out under Venethrax's feat. Admittedly
I do usually forget about it, but still. (Credit: David Brown)
My objective for Turn 3 was to kill the objective to go 2-0 up on scenario. After that, I just wanted to cause as much damage as possible, and continue to make Chris' life difficult as far as moving around the board was concerned. I dropped Soul Harvester, and after surfacing both Helldivers in good positions gave one of them 3, and the other 1. The latter charged the objective and destroyed it easily; objective achieved. The second Helldiver killed both the Iron Fang Kovnik and one of the Great Bears with back arc attacks. I then had a massive brain fart, and nearly screwed up big time. Venethrax charged my objective and put some serious damage into it. For some reason I thought that both were enemy, and I'm very glad that I didn't have enough focus to kill it! At least it got him slightly further away from the Great Bears, but that was nearly a monumental mistake. The slap-fight between the Pistol Wraith and Alexia continued, with Gerlak joining in and being similarly ineffective. The rest of my army jammed like crazy, with a second Bloodgorger joining in the "let's miss Eiryss each turn" game while the rest tried to protect Venethrax.
Game 3 - the end of my third turn. I've killed Chris' objective, but nearly hand him a point by killing my own as well!
That would have been silly. Eiryss vs Bloodgorgers, and Alexia vs Pistol Wraith + Gerlak continue in comedic fashion. (Credit: David Brown)
The comedy continued this turn, with both Alexia and Eiryss continuing to fail to kill their respective opponents. Both Chris and I were finding those combats rather funny, and they gave a good outlet for poor dice luck. Neither was particularly important by this point in the game, but keeping Eiryss tied up for so long had definitely helped me. The Bokur did kill a Bloodgorger, and Butcher3 used Impending Doom to drag four more to their deaths. The Argus and Iron Fangs killed off the last pair of Bane Thralls, but the Pikemen weren't able to destroy either of the Helldivers. Nor were the Great Bears able to kill Saxon, which really surprised me. Chris' last action of the turn was to run Beast-09 into the zone, and into a rather threatening position. Fortunately for me he was also blocking the Butcher's charge lanes somewhat.
My fourth turn was all about surviving. I hadn't expected to have Saxon still alive, but I was very glad that he was, as he but a couple of points on a Great Bear. Venethrax upkept Dragon Slayer and charged the Great Bears, killing one with the charge attack but then needing a further three attacks before the last Great Bear failed a tough roll. With boosting that left him on a single focus, and rather close for comfort to Beast-09. The Pistol Wraith, Gerlak, and Bloodgorger continued to miss Alexia and Eiryss, while the other remaining Bloodgorger charged the Argus closest to him, conveniently getting in the way of Beast-09's charge lane to Venethrax. The Skarlock didn't do much.
Game 3 - the end of my fourth turn. I'm running out of models now, but Chris hasn't really been able to get the Iron Fangs into the game.
Beast-09 looks threatening. (Credit: David Brown)
The end of the round had to be getting close, but Chris had at least part of a turn to try and kill Venethrax. Amazingly Eiryss managed to kill her opponent, at which both of us cheered! But Alexia still couldn't hit the Pistol Wraith, booooooo. Then came the important part of the turn. Butcher3 and His Argus killed the Bloodgorger in the way, and a full loaded Beast-09 charged Venethrax. Uh-oh. Then the incredible happened - a combination of poor dice on hit and damage meant that Beast-09 couldn't get the job done, and Venethrax survived! Dice down was called, and I'd somehow held on to win 2-0 on scenario!
Chris was a great opponent, incredibly friendly, clear with his movements and actions, and a pleasure to play against. We both had a laugh at the ineffectual combats on my left flank, and he was very sanguine about some of the really poor dice luck that he had all throughout the game. The number of times that he missed a roll by one point (mostly 7s on two dice as well) was amazing, but he never got frustrated by it. He admitted before the game that he didn't know what much of my stuff did, and despite the run through I gave him I still think that the Satyxis caught him out. That put him on the back foot, particularly when he started to get in his own way, but yet he still nearly pulled a win out of the bag.
2-1, 7 CPs, 43 APs destroyed
Lessons learnt:
*Jamming with Satyxis Raiders wins games.
*Don't kill your own objectives stupid!
*Don't waste Gerlak.
Game 3 - the end of the game (ignore the Bloodgorger and Bane Thrall at the bottom). Somehow Venethrax survives the onslaught
to win on scenario. (Credit: David Brown)
Game 4: Ricky Freed (Legion of Everblight) - Close Quarters
The fourth round of the game saw me back up ton table four, paired up against Ricky. We'd played for the wooden spoon last time out in Northampton, with Ricky's Haley2 list coming out on top against my Venethrax list. This time around he was playing Legion of Everblight, and had Thagrosh1 and Rhyas. I have to admit that I didn't really think about list selection for this game - I saw Everblight, and went for Venethrax. In hindsight that was a big mistake, as both of his lists had a lot of beef; the Thagrosh list was full of warbeasts, and the Rhyas list had three units of medium-based infantry. Skarre's feat would have given me a way around that, and I'm not sure that either list had much in the way of magical attacks to take on the massed incorporeal.
Ricky picked Rhyas, with the following list:
Rhyas
*Shredder
*Shredder
*Shredder
Max. Ogrun Warspears
*Chieftain UA
Max. Ogrun Warspears
*Chieftain UA
Max. Gatormen Posse
Gatorman Witch Doctor
Gatorman Witch Doctor
Ouch! That's a lot of wounds.
I went to four out of four roll offs lost, and Ricky chose to go first. I picked the opposite side to where I'd been for my game against Benji in Round 1. Ricky deployed a unit of Warspears on each flank, with an attendant Witch Doctor for each one. The Posse went in the middle, with Rhyas and her Shredders behind. I used my standard deployment: Venethrax and battlegroup central, Bloodgorgers just to the left, Bane Thralls, Saxon, and Pistol Wraith just to the right, Satyxis in front. With such a symmetric deployment from Ricky, there wasn't really any benefit to weighting one flank over the other, and the scenario didn't really call for it either - with the number of wounds on the other side of the table, getting to Ricky's flag was going to be all but impossible.
Game 4 - my setup. Fairly standard really. But look at all those medium-based infantry across the table! (Credit: David Brown)
Ricky's first turn involved getting as far up the board as possible. Both the Warspear units were Zombified, and Tenacity went on the Witch Doctors and Rhyas. Prey went onto the Satyxis, and the Bane Thralls. I did the usual - Soul Harvester on the Satyxis, Dragon Slayer on Venethrax, run everything forward. I decided to repeat the trick that had worked so well on Chris, and with Desperate Pace from the Captain I jammed the Raiders down the throat of the Gatormen Posse.
Then it all went horribly, horribly wrong. The Posse and the Warspears on my left flank combined to wipe out the Satyxis Raiders to a woman. Oh dear. The other Warspear unit killed a single Bane Thrall, and Rhyas loomed behind the linear obstacle just behind Ricky's objective, upkeeping Tenacity. Both Warspear units turned into Zombies again.
Game 4 - the start of my second turn. I'm sure that there used to be a unit of Satyxis Raiders in the middle of the board? (Credit: David Brown)
Well, that escalated quickly! Time to try and retaliate. I charged the Bloodgorgers into the Warspears opposite them, but their zombie status meant I didn't get the extra charge distance, so contact was limited and I didn't manage to kill any of them, even with the help of the Raider Captain. I'd put Soul Harvester onto them with Skarlock almost reflexively, but it wouldn't have been any use even if I had killed one. Zombies don't have souls after all. The other flank went slightly better, with charging Bane Thralls killing a couple of the Warspears, and the Pistol Wraith sneaking through their lines to shoot down their attendant Witch Doctor. No more zombies on my right thank you very much. Sadly the Chieftain for that Warspear unit was still alive, and close enough to contest the flag, so even though I advanced Venethrax up into base-to-base with the flag I wasn't able to score. The Helldivers advanced up the middle and burrowed.
Game 4 - the end of my second turn. Lots of movement, but not a lot of production :-( (Credit: David Brown)
Ricky started his third turn by asking what happened if the Helldivers had nowhere to surface, and smiled with glee when I told him that they'd be destroyed. With the number of medium bases he had, blocking at least one of them was entirely possible. Rhyas then proceeded to pop her feat, charge forward, murder half of a unit of Bloodgorgers single handedly, and then sprint back into base-to-base with the flag. Um, what? Then the Warspears on the left killed off almost all of the rest of the Bloodgorgers, who'd been made their prey with the demise of the Satyxis. Oh dear. Then the Posse just about sealed the deal (there was a lone Bloodgorger who just wouldn't fail his tough roll), and put down Gerlak and a Bane Thrall into the bargain. The other unit of Warspears killed three more Bane Thralls. At the end of Ricky's turn he scored a CP, and I went 0-1 down on scenario.
I was in big trouble at this point. I had the grand total of nine, yes 9, models left. If I didn't kill Rhyas, then I was going to lose next turn. Fortunately I could see a slim chance, but it would need some major luck to pull it off. Rhyas still had Tenacity up, so was a massive DEF 17. But if I could hit, I could put some serious hurt on her, as he'd spent all of her fury killing Bloodgorgers. It was just hitting that would be the problem. I very carefully placed my Helldivers as they surfaced - fortunately Ricky hadn't managed to block them, but only one would be able to get to Rhyas. I allocated that one three. I started with trying to clear out some of the rest of his army - Venethrax tried to kill the Posse member contesting the flag, but it just wouldn't fail its tough roll, and I spent all of my focus trying. The Bane Thrall and Pistol Wraith had better luck against the Chieftain UA they were facing. Saxon shot a Warspear for a few points.
Then came the important bit. Even with the Helldiver I would struggle to kill Rhyas, but the Raider Captain was close enough. She managed to sneak close enough to get Rhyas within whip range, but couldn't get any closer because I needed the landing space for the Helldiver. She needed a 9 to hit, which I made, but sadly didn't get the critical knockdown. I then cranked the damage roll, and put five points of damage on Rhyas. Good start. I then very carefully charged the Helldiver through the flag into the convenient, medium-base sized gap next to Rhyas. I'd carefully lined it up to avoid free strikes from the Warspears, and checking with Ricky he agreed that I was clear. I then use my first focus to boost the hit roll, needing an 11. I made it, and the charge attack did enough to take her down to just a couple of points of health. With my last focus I bought an attack, needing an 11 on two dice. Long odds, but I rolled boxcars, and the damage roll was just enough to put Rhyas into the dirt! Victory snatched from the jaws of defeat!
Game 4 - the end of my third turn, and somehow I've pulled off a win with only 9 models left! (Credit: David Brown)
3-1, 7 CPs, 62 APs destroyed
Ricky, understandably, wasn't particularly pleased by this turn of events. In all honesty, he outplayed me at every turn in this game, right from list selection onwards. I should have picked the Skarre list, I threw away the Satyxis (who would probably have survived slightly better against his shooting), and the rest of my army just didn't have the oomph to get through all of his wounds. That being said, Ricky made the most of the opportunity that I gave him, and capitalised ruthlessly on my errors. He was understandably confident in Rhyas' DEF to keep her safe, but sometimes luck is on your side. Hitting an 11 on two dice to win isn't how I wanted to do it, but I was pleased with the Helldiver move in general.
Lessons learnt:
*Remember to use your feat!!
*Think more carefully about list selection.
*Jamming Raiders are good, but sometimes holding them back for an alpha strike is better.
*Don't be afraid to go for it if you're staring at a loss - sometimes the dice go your way.
Game 4 - Rhyas takes a Helldiver to the face. 11 on two dice to win the game, and I get it! (Credit: David Brown)
Overall thoughts
Sadly there wasn't a fifth round as we had a winner at the end of round four, but my 3-1 record and 7 CPs were enough to net me 6th overall out of 24 players, and to nab the 'best of Cryx' award by a single CP from the other Cryx player present. I'm very pleased with that, although I still don't think that I played four good games. Two good games yes - against James and Chris I think I played very well, but against Benji I was a little timid and against Ricky I was outplayed and got lucky.
I think that I need to be more aggressive with when I play the Skarre list. I still don't have a proper handle on its strengths and weaknesses yet, and I think that I'm sometimes hesitant to drop it. Venethrax has sort of become a safety blanket for me as it's a straight forward list, and I've played him a lot in the last year and a bit. That being said, this tournament really showed me the problems with my current Venethrax setup. I'm still reasonably happy with it, but it has some serious problems that I need to think about, so I'll be retiring him for a while.
This was another great tournament experience, and I'm still very impressed by the Guardians of Tyr setup. I will definitely be attending more of their events in the future, which with an event almost every month (alternating between Northampton and Milton Keynes) could be a lot of tournaments!
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