[Warmachine] Return to the tournament scene

It's been a long, long time since I made it to a Guardians of Tyr event. Over a year in fact. A few factors are responsible for this: the loss of the events in Milton Keynes this year means they're bimonthly, so if I'm busy there are fewer opportunities; a busier schedule for me combined with unfortunate timing of the events, and the Sunday dates. I keep my eye on the calendar, and always express interest, but inevitably something comes up and I can't make it. However, the latest event, which was last Sunday, I was actually able to attend!

There have been some changes since I last went to Northampton for an event. They've moved to Deathclock (probably a plus), have moved from a slightly lower points value to the tournament standard (definitely a plus), and have standardised most of the events to be standard Steamroller (which I think is a shame, though the last event is a Who's the Boss tournament). Oh, and the both the new edition of Warmachine and the new Steamroller packet have been released! So there were a lot of changes to deal with, but lots of familiar faces when I arrived.

One of the big things of Warmachine Mk3 is the rise and rise of theme forces, and Privateer Press had been promising a big dump of new ones would land some time in September. Naturally, they were published the Friday before the event! I took the following lists:

[Theme] The Ghost Fleet
(Deneghra 1) Warwitch Deneghra [+28]
 - Deathripper [6]
 - Deathripper [6]
 - Deathripper [6]
 - Harrower [16]
Captain Rengrave [0(5)]
Machine Wraith [2]
Pistol Wraith [0(5)]
Pistol Wraith [0(5)]
Saxon Orrik [4]
Blackbane's Ghost Raiders (min) [11]
Revenant Cannon Crew [4]
Revenant Cannon Crew [4]
Revenant Crew of the Atramentous (max) [16]
 - Revenant Crew Rifleman (3) [6]
Revenant Crew of the Atramentous (max) [16]
 - Revenant Crew Rifleman (3) [6]

[Theme] Black Industries
(Asphyxious 3) Asphyxious the Hellbringer [+24]
 - Cankerworm [9]
 - Deathjack [23]
 - Leviathan [16]
 - Ripjaw [0(7)]
 - Ripjaw [0(7)]
 - Seether [13]
 - Slayer [10]
 - Stalker [8]
Machine Wraith [2]
Necrotech [2]
Warwitch Siren [4]
Warwitch Siren [4]
The Devil's Shadow Mutineers [8]

I won't do a play-by-play of my games, but here are some overall thoughts.

Game 1: Lee Prestidge (Circle Orboros)

Lee had Wurmwood and I think one of the Kayas. With Ghost Fleet in my pairing he was obviously going to drop Wurmwood, so I chose Asphyxious3.

I was overly aggressive with a couple of my warjacks in my first turn, so Lee (who was going first) was able to take out a couple of them using his Warpwolves. I feated in response, but had forgotten that two of them were automatically frenzying because of Primal, so didn't get much work out of it. We went back and forth on control points a bit, but Lee was able to overwhelm my right flank and eventually grind me down to win on scenario.

Learning points:

1) Just because you have the extra speed from Mobility doesn't mean you have to use it.

2) Seethers are great, but can be controlled by your opponent because of the 'must run or charge unless engaged' rule

3) Be careful with Feat timing.

4) Remember the Field Marshall: unyielding!

Game 1 vs Wurmwood (Credit: David Brown)

Game 2: Kristoffer Cadd (Convergence of Cyriss)

Kris had Axis with double battle engines, and Aurora with lots of infantry using the new theme. I suspected he might drop Axis, and was worried about the battle engines if I dropped Ghost Fleet, so picked Asphyxious again.

Kris underestimated just how fast my warjacks were with Mobility. I'd been more cautious in my first turn, but second turn was able to trample Deathjack to the battle engine on my left flank and kill it easily (I'd cast Calamity on it previously). I also sacrificed Cankerworm to bait some counter-charges from his warjacks, opening a lane to the Corollory for my Stalker. With those two down Kris was at a big disadvantage; his focus manipulation was hampered, his right flank was weak, and Deathjack was in his back lines. He couldn't deal with Deathjack, and I scored enough scenario points to win.

Kris has a write-up of the game on his blog.

Learning points:

1) Remember how spell slave works! Vociferon is less useful for spells than I thought.

2) Deathjack with Asphyxious3 in this theme is a beast; mobility for the speed, carapace for the approach, and unyielding for combat makes him hard to kill. Particularly when you can easily use cover thanks to the pathfinder aspect of mobility.

Game 2 vs Axis. Note the Deathjack monstering the backline. (Credit: David Brown)

Game 3: Chris Tapper (Minions)

Chris had Rask under "Blindwater Congregation", and I think a "Will Work for Food" list, but I don't really remember. I really wasn't sure who to drop this game; if I played Asphyxious3 then I would be list locked for the final round (we were playing D&C1), and I wanted to avoid that if possible, and I wasn't sure that that list would have the volume of attacks to deal with the three units of 8-wound Gatormen Posse in the Rask list. So I went with Deneghra1 and Ghost Fleet. That was going to make the scenario more difficult, as it was a warjack-zone scenario, but I thought it had more of a chance.

Kris managed to snipe out both one of my Revenant leaders and Blackbane in turn 2 using the Sacral Vault's remove-from-play shot, which really hampered my left flank. I got good use out of my feat, taking down one of the Wrastlers and a number of Posse on my right, and the Pistol Wraiths were able to keep the Sacral Vault stationary for a couple of rounds. But I was struggling to clear the zone on my right, and there were two turns where a single posse member was just able to contest. I was well down on clock too, and in the end just ran out of time. Chris played really well though, and it was a great game.

Learning points:

1) Sacral Vault's remove from play when they shoot people, which really hurts a recursion list.

2) I need to be careful not to box my arcnodes in; I could have used Deneghra's spells more effectively this game.

3) As I thought, Blindwater Congregation Posse are horrible to deal with and wreck a troop swarm, even without their bonuses against living.

Game 3 vs Rask. (Credit: David Brown)

Game 4: Dan Ford (Skorne)

Dan had Makeda1 with double Ferox, and Hexeris2 with quadruple Cyclops Shaman, Cyclops Raider, double Soulward, and full Venators for a massive shooting assassination threat! Suddenly I was very glad that I hadn't list locked myself into ghost fleet - the double Ferox would destroy the Revenants, and the Shaman list would assassinate Deneghra without really breaking a sweat. Asphyxious3 was the obvious choice for me, and Dan went with the Hexeris2 list.

I hid Asphyxious3 behind the large central building out of habit, but Dan didn't really care and on his second turn he went all in for the assassination. I was sweating bullets at this point, but unfortunately for Dan his dice completely failed him. His first attempt at landing Black Spot missed, then his first shot at Hellfire missed. Of the four Shamans, two missed, and one failed to damage. The Reivers then tried a bunch of two-man CRAs and kept missing / failing to damage as well. I think I only had to spend one of the four focus I was sitting on!

After that it was academic really. I killed his objective and was uncontested in the side zones to score three. I feated, and Dan had another shot but just kept healing me and giving me souls. He didn't really push to contest either, so that was game.

Learning points:

1) Asphyxious3 can tank if needs be.

2) His feat is great against a Hordes gunline

3) Deathjack is still a beast.

Game 4 vs Hexeris2. Dan is going all in for the assassination, leaving me free to boss the scenario (Credit: David Brown)

Overall thoughts

I finished the day 2-2, and 8th out of 16. Not bad for my first tournament in a while, and my first with deathclock in over four years! It was great to get back to a Guardians of Tyr and catch up with some old faces, meet some great new ones, and generally spend the day playing toy soldiers. Hopefully I can make it to more events in the near future!

I took a small number of photos from the event. They're at my Flickr account.