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

Mirsuharu on Bat Reps - Intercessor Kreoss vs Orsus Zoktavir the Butcher of Khardov

Hey everyone, welcome back to Mitsuharu on Bat Reps and my latest practice game with the Intercessor. This week I faced off against Khador and the prime incarnation of Butcher. My list was the one I theory-machined out last week:-

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

My opponent was using a tier 4 pButcher Claws of the Dragon tier list. This included 3 max units of Black Dragon Iron Fang Pikeman all with Black Dragon UAs. An IFP Kovnik, The Great Bears of the Gallowswood, a Manhunter and Butcher brought 2 Devastators and a War dog as tier requirements. This was a good game but we both attritioned pretty hard and the whole game was a harsh grind throughout. The clock was also tight for both of us. His list was comparatively simple to use, and his strategy was straightforward, but the numbers of models meant that each turn took a lot of activations, wearing down the clock. On my side of the table my list was smaller and didn't require as many activations or time spent, but did require a lot more thought on target priority and activation order, meaning I was spending a lot of time on my turn considering options. 

The scenario this time was Fire Support and Khador got the first turn and the advance moves put the army at around the midline from turn one. I put out my usual buffs (Ignite to the horses, Holy Ward to the Daughters, and Warpath on Kreoss) on my turn and had the daughters turtle around the Bunker objective and everything else shuffled forwards. Following this one unit of IFP moved onto my flag and the other two units advanced to engage my Errants who were sat in a forest opposite his flag. 

For the rest of the game the Vengers and Daughters held my flag, grinding out the IFP on that flank, while the Errants managed to survive the entire game against both units of the IFP, neither being able to kill the other decisively. The Errants with Rhupert and the Covenant plus the fact that I got a stupidly high number of toughs and the unfortunate to hit rolls from the IFP kept them in the game, whereas the sheer volume of bodies on the IFP took too long for the Errants to kill. The Great Bears and the third unit of IFP killed off half the Vengers and killed most of the objective, but both got wiped out after multiple grinding turns and couldn't hit the DEF 17 Daughters. 

I played far too preciously with Kreoss again, and allowed my concern about assassination to keep me back, not utalising him to the maximum since he's a hard-hitting and survivable caster. This also led me to kill box myself on the side of the board, as I'd forgotten this rule in my rush to protect him. This set me back on scenario, giving my opponent the upper hand. Following this I dominated my own flag twice, having to Force Hammer one of his jacks out of contesting on my last turn. Butcher also managed to dominate his flag before it could run my Daughters clear across the board to contest. My Force Hammer slam had unfortunately moved the Devastator next to my objective (which only had two points left on it) and he sacrificed movement to stand and then took out the objective for the final point he needed to win the game. 

This was a hard game on both our sides but I feel a lot more comfortable with this list incarnation than previously, as I feel it can handle a lot more attrition and still dish out some serious damage. I need to play much more aggressively with it though, as I allowed my opponent to dictate the board to me, and was too cautious with my caster who could have been dominating my flag much sooner if I'd moved up more aggressively. I also need to be focusing more on challenging for the scenario more as I felt that cost me in this game too. 

I'm looking forward to using this list again in the tournament in a couple of weeks, and in the meantime I'm planning to practice my Feora list a couple of times too. 

Stay tuned for more!

-M