Tourney Tales - Valentines' Massacre

Hi again everyone, the dust has settled on the Valentines' Masscre tournament at my LGS so I'm here to tell you all about it. This is the tournament that I've been preparing for for the past few weeks so I was looking forward to it. Right up until the actual morning of the event, that is, which is when the cold I'd had brewing exploded into a full on head cold and I felt awful. Despite that though, I dragged myself down to play some Warmachine. (See how I slipped my excuses in early). Because of this illness I didn't get any photos like I said I would, and my memory of the games is foggy at best. Because of this I'll just write up a quick summary of the games I played for each round rather than a turn by turn. 

The lists I took were the two I'd been practicing with:

List One:

Intercessor Kreoss +5

-Vanquisher -8

-Reckoner -8

Min Choir -2

Vassal of Menoth -2

Nicia, Tear of Vengence -3

Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord -2

Covenant of Menoth -2

Wracks -1

Vassal Mechanic -1

Daughters of Menoth -5

Max Exemplar Vengers -11

Max Exemplar Errants with UA -10

List Two:

eFeora +6

-Bonded Judicator -18

-Reckoner -8

Vassal of Menoth -2

Wracks -1

Vassal Mechanic -1

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution -3

Dartan Vilmon -3

Saxon Orrik -2

Gorman Di Wulfe -2

Min Choir -2 

Max TFG with UA -8

Min Zealots with UA -6

Round 1

My first game was against Will whose Mercs I'd had a practice game against last week. This time around, though we both decided to use our other lists, with me taking Intercessor Kreoss and him electing to take Magnus the Traitor. His list consisted of two Renegades, a Max unit of Nyss Hunters, eEiryss, Carvolo, Dougal MacNaile, Ayanna and Holt and probably most importantly Gastonne Crosse with a Galleon. From my part this game was a complete flop. I managed to allow Will to 'live the dream' with the list, getting a turn 2 assassination to win the game. A re-rolled deviation (thanks to Dougal) on a Renegade shot knocked Kreoss down, allowing the Galleon to pump him full of shots before hitting the drag (Double powder rations) and using the free melee to stomp on Kreoss' head. Not an especially auspicious start to the day, with me only managing to score 3 army points of damage for the whole game by killing Eiryss. 

Round 2

My second round game was against a Cryx player who was using Sturgis the Corrupted. I elected to drop eFeora to handle the infantry that was in both of his lists. His list comprised of Sturgis himself with a Harrower, a max unit of Boomhowlers, Gerlak Slaughterborn, a full unit of Bloodgorgers, a full unit of Bloodwitches with the UA, Orrik to give them pathfinder, Ragman, a Warwitch, two pistol Wraiths, and a min unit of Bile Thralls. It was a meaty list with lots of tough and other shenanigans to make it hard to get through. The game was pretty back and forth, and was fairly balanced throughout. Mainly because we were both really unlucky, failing to get off multiple things. The Bloodwitches and the zealots traded mini-feats to ensure that neither did anything for two turns. There was a turn when he passed no tough rolls, including the 4+ Boomhowlers, and then the following round not a single troll failed. We both took critical chain attacks but missed the second hit despite needing 3s to hit. Throughout the game Sturgis got work done, moving up the field with Relentless Charge to kill a bunch of stuff before yo-yo-ing back with teleport. This left his caster pretty bare for most of the game, and so he took a pounding from blasts from the Judicator. The Judicator was his main priority, putting all of his efforts into killing it, but missing the mark by around five damage boxes. In the end the blast damaged and the fact that fire never went out was what won me the game. despite being outside of Feora's Caustic Presence, the fire stayed on and the pow 12 was enough to finish off the former Cygnar caster and win me the game, making me one for two. 

Round 3

My third game of the day was against one of the youngest players in our meta. Despite his age, however, he's a canny opponent who generally practices against some of the best players we have. He was using Cygnar and had made a commitment to destroying a colossal for the day. Because of this he dropped a Siege list, and I obliged by dropping eFeora. His list included a Defender and a Squire with Siege along with a unit of Gun Mages marshalling a Hunter, a max unit of Tempest Blazers, Jakes with a Stormclad, accompanied by Arlan Strangewayes. The list also included Rienholt, Gorman and Pendrake. 

I spent the majority of the game sniping out the key support solos in the army, and using blasts to overcome the Cygnaran high DEF and take out a bunch of models. A lucky deviation from the Stormclad landed right on Jakes, killing her and making it inert. To overcome this he moved his Gun Mages into the zone and thunderstruck his own Jack backwards towards Arlan so he could reactivate it. This pushed the Jack out of the zone, following which the zealots and the Judicator managed to clear the zone and score a point. We both attritioned well but he found Passage'd jacks frustrating for his list and couldn't clear them from the zone, while I couldn't reach his caster for a reliable assassination run on him. In the end we got to dice down on a very unclear point in the game where there was no certainty which way it might have gone (his feat turn could have crippled me, or left him exposed to a solid assassination run) and since I'd scored one point I won on tie breaker. Putting me at 2 for 3 for the day. 

Round 4

The final round saw me paired up with Mark, the Khador player who I faced a couple of weeks previously during my iKreoss test games. Much like with Will we both ended up using our alternative lists. I played eFeora and he was locked into Vlad 2. The list included Sylys Wyshnalyrr, a Spriggan two units of Doom Reavers, Fenris, a max unit of Uhlans, along with the solo, and a max unit of IFP with Black Dragon UA. 

This game was good, and much like last time I massively out attritioned him, killing all but one of the IFP and Uhlans respectively, and leaving only two or three Doom Reavers by the end of the game. Despite this he put a bunch of pressure on me, moving across the board quickly and locking me out of contesting his flag. He made several attempts at an assassination run on Feora but she proved too hard to kill. He scored defensively on his own flag for 2 rounds, forcing me into a long shot assassination run. I hit with a double boosted rocket pod, wiping out half his boxes, and doing a couple more with the secondary blast. I then boosted the second rocket pod and would have hit if not for the Might of Kings bumping up his DEF, doing a bit more damage with the blasts. The Reckoner then managed to get a line on him and took another shot, but didn't have any focus for boosts, and even though he managed to hit, didn't roll enough to kill. He was left with a handful of boxes and on fire, but managed to score the final point for the win, leaving me on 2 for 4 overall for the day. 

The games I played were really fun, and apart from the first game I felt like I was always able to take control. I would have enjoyed myself a lot more if I wasn't feeling so sick, but nonetheless it was a good day, and I'm already looking towards the new casters I want to try out...

Stay tuned for more, and don't forget to like Mitsuharu on Minis on Facebook for regular updates and more!

-M

Journeyman League - Week 1

Last night was the first night of the journeyman league and had a pretty great turn out with around 19 people coming to game, which was good to see a healthy warmachine community in the area. I'd managed to get around 13 preleague hobby points by getting a few units painted up in the weeks before gaming started. I was one of the first to arrive and so I managed to get three full games in before having to leave for the night. 

Contrary to my previous post I made a last minute switch on my battle group: as I decided I wanted to try something new I bought and painted pFeora a few days before the league started fully. My revised battle box is a variation on the alternative offered in the Privateer Press league document (the EO allowed players to customise within his guidelines):

pFeora +6

Vanquisher -6

Dervish -4

Repenter -4

This was a bit of a weird choice as technically I had another 2 points to spend if I wanted them and could have upped the Dervish to a Crusader, but I decided I'd prefer those 2 points for support solos once we up to 15 points.

My first game of the night was against a small Mercenaries group led by pMagnus with a Mangler and a Mule. My opponent opened the game by scrapping the Repenter. I did middling damage to the Mangler with a Vanquisher shot before taking the brunt of a revenge charge from the jack with my heavy. After some poor dice rolls on my opponents side I managed to come out of it with 4 boxes left which included my last cortex box and my melee weapon arm leaving me in a reasonable position to retaliate. Between an ignited Dervish charge and Feora advancing into combat with EoD I took down the Mangler in one turn. Destroying the jack left my caster in a direct line to his Mule so he threw Iron Agression on the jack and charged with full focus and boosted melee attacks. All but one attack missed and that did negligible damage leaving his only jack in melee with Feora, the Vanquisher and the Dervish, and was quickly scrapped. As we were playing Mangled Metal this netted me my first win. 

My second game was against a really friendly player who had brought Legion, with pThags leading a Shredder, Raek and a Ravagore. From the opening of the game my opponent played conservatively, keeping his stuff safe in a forest outside his deployment (he was a bit bummed my caster was immune to fire and therefore all his ranged). I managed to clip the Raek with an AOE to set it on fire but not much else for the first couple of turns. After that the Shredder and Raek charged my exposed Repenter and dealt a heap of damage but didn't destroy the light and left the Raek exposed to a charge in the side by my Dervish, who failed to kill but critically wounded it, leaving the Repenter to finish the job. I finished my turn managing to scatter an AOE onto my own Dervish, setting it on fire. On his turn the shredder was full on fury but managed to pass its threshold check (to his dismay as he wanted the boosts), which turned out to be unnecessary as he scrapped the Repenter regardless. Later in his turn he feated to bring the Raek back but positioned it poorly and so couldn't get his turn off properly, instead repositioning to get a better advantage for next turn. My turn I smacked the Raek about with the Dervish but didn't do anything significant. Following the devastating damage pFeora did last game I was a bit cocky and charged her up to finish off the Shredder instead of using the more sensible flamethrower option, ending on a feat to set pThags on fire (everything else already was). The Raek moved up and leaped over the Dervish into combat with Feora only doing slight damage but opening the charge lane for Thags who annihilated her with boosted attacks netting him the win. 

My final game was against Trolls, who are probably one of the factions I know the least. The list he played was pMadrak, an Impaler, a Pyre troll and an Axer. Much to everyone's amusement the Pyre troll's animus meant that he could get all of his army immunity: fire effectively nullifying most of my army. Despite being effectively immune to most of my attacks he played a really defensive game from the outset, deploying his whole army in one corner and hugging it all game. I moved up cautiously to avoid counter charges that never really came. I wasn't very confident about the outcome thanks to the animus so I just kept moving up the board. I had Hex Hammer up all game which meant I was chipping away at the caster every time he cast anything;  leaving him overly concerned about casting. A few turns in my Repenter was lined up with Feora and he moved his Impaler up trying to crit and knock the light into my caster but didn't get it. This left him exposed and out of animus range so I took full advantage and poured 3 flamethrowers on it to get the kill. This seemed to spur him on and the rest of his army charged my Vanquisher and scrapped it. This wasn't too devastating as immune to fire had left it doing nothing all game anyway. I threw on EoD and advanced into combat with Madrak who he'd exposed to finish off the Vanquisher. I only did an average amount of damage and was pretty exposed for the following turn. He dropped all his defensive buffs and went for the caster kill, advancing into combat with the Axer but falling just short with the pyre troll after realising it didn't have reach. He poured all his fury into attacks and boosts and when the smoke cleared Feora had three boxes left and Madrak was sat on no fury for transfers so I had no trouble finishing him off for my second win. 

Overall I finished on two wins and a loss which I'm pretty pleased with since I wasn't especially confident heading into the night. Plus it netted me an extra 8 league points. It was great to meet some of the guys and get to play against a variety of lists. It was a fun time, so I'm looking forward to giving it another go next week, and I'll keep everyone posted how it goes!

-M