Hey guys, its been a while! Moving has been pretty hectic, but I finally managed to get out and play a few games of Warmachine this weekend at Gamescape in San Francisco. They were actually hosting a tournament, and it seemed like a good way to meet the local Warmachine/Hordes community. I completely forgot how draining they are though. A friend of mine randomly wandered into the store between the third and fourth rounds, and I'm pretty sure I sounded drunk! I managed to go 2-2, which I was pretty happy with, especially since my losses were to the only guy who went undefeated and a combo I'd never seen that got me on turn 2. The format was 2 list, 35 points, using 2012 Steamroller scenarios. These were the lists I brought:
Saeryn, Omen of Everblight (+5pts)
* Shredder (2pts)
* Shredder (2pts)
* Carnivean (11pts)
* Scythean (9pts)
Blackfrost Shard (5pts)
Blighted Nyss Striders (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
* Blighted Nyss Striders Officer & Musician (3pts)
2 Spell Martyrs (2pts)
Thagrosh, the Messiah (+3pts)
* Shredder (2pts)
* Shredder (2pts)
* Shredder (2pts)
* Shredder (2pts)
* Carnivean (11pts)
* Seraph (8pts)
Blighted Nyss Striders (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
* Blighted Nyss Striders Officer & Musician (3pts)
2 Spell Martyrs (2pts)
The Saeryn list should look familiar to anyone whose read this blog before, and it was a nice way to ease back into the game with a list I have a lot of practice with. The Epic Thagrosh list was an attempt to combine all the best things I've done with him, including an assassination with Scourge and a Carnivean's spray, as well as mobs of Shredders under Manifest Destiny and his feat, Dragon Storm. Anyway, without further ado, here are recaps of my matches:
Game 1: Saeryn vs. Epic Vlad
Scenario 2 - Gauntlet
Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Champion (+5pts)
* Drago (8pts)
Great Bears of Gallowswood (5pts)
Iron Fang Pikemen (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Black Dragon Officer & Standard (2pts)
Iron Fang Pikemen (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard (2pts)
Iron Fang Uhlans (Leader and 2 Grunts) (7pts)
This was the guy who ended up going undefeated. His other list was Karchev, who I knew I probably wasn't going to assassinate, so I chose Saeryn. I managed to down the Ulhans early with Striders and a Shredder, and seriously injure the Great Bears with a Blightbringer, but forgot to feat on the second turn and lost my Carnivean. I almost managed to get the win anyway by clearing a path for my Scythean to get to Vlad, but after he took 10 damage from the first blow his defenses got too high for me to finish him off thanks to Might of Kings. 24 Iron Fangs was ridiculously hard to deal with, mainly because of the numbers, high ARM, and the fact that they are strong enough to threaten heavies. Still need to figure out an answer to that...
Game 2: Saeryn vs. Naaresh
Scenario 15 - Restoration
Master Ascetic Naaresh (+6pts)
* Basilisk Krea (4pts)
* Cyclops Brute (5pts)
* Cyclops Savage (5pts)
* Molik Karn (11pts)
Nihilators (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer (3pts)
Both his lists had a Cyclops brute to provide Safeguard to prevent the caster from being knocked down, so I opted for Saeryn since Thagrosh would lose one of his best assassination vectors. On turns 1 and 2, I arc'ed Breathstealer on Molik Karn to keep him at bay, then used my feat on turn 2 to force my Carnivean and Scythean into his lines, killing Molik Karn and injuring Naaresh. In response he cycloned out and put himself next to Saeryn to go for the assassination next turn, and unfortunately most of my beasts frenzied, and the Scythean alone couldn't penetrate Naaresh's DEF 18 ARM 20 thanks to Iron Flesh and Pain Monger. My beasts frenzied, and I had to focus on killing him cyclopses rather than going after Naaresh, but thankfully none of the paingivers could get to him that turn so he wasn't able to bring down Saeryn, giving me another turn to finish him off.
Game 3: Epic Thagrosh vs. Calandra
Scenario 7 - Incursion
Calandra Truthsayer, Oracle of the Glimmerwood (+5pts)
* Troll Impaler (5pts)
* Dire Troll Bomber (10pts)
Farrow Bone Grinders (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Pyg Burrowers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer (2pts)
Alten Ashley, Monster Hunter (2pts)
Stone Scribe Chronicler (2pts)
Trollkin Champion Hero (3pts)
At last, a chance to try out Epic Thagrosh! Well, not really. On turn 2, he used his feat and unborrowed his Pyg Burrowers to assassinate Thagrosh. While I've heard of them before, I've never seen them in action - those POW 14 guns really hurt! I almost managed to weather it by using the spawned Shredder to prevent 2 of them from firing, but the last one still managed to finish me off. I was kicking myself because I brought Thagrosh out of cover for no good reason, and the DEF bonus would probably have saved him. Also, I had excess fury and used it to cast tenacity twice instead of Spiny Growth, which would have saved him.
Game 4: Saeryn vs. The Witch Coven
Scenario 8 - Process of Elimination
The Witch Coven of Garlghast (+5pts)
* Defiler (5pts)
* Defiler (5pts)
* Helldiver (3pts)
* Deathjack (12pts)
* Seether (9pts)
Bane Knights (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
I really wanted to use Thagrosh here, but the scenario seemed too good for Saeryn's feat. On turn 2 I ran both my heavies into the middle of the control zones and popped feat, essentially daring him to try to take them. He had no choice but to move up to keep me from scoring, and I was able to charge and finish off both his heavies while using Striders and Blightbringer to carve up the Bane Knights. As a last-ditch attempt he tried to assassinate Saeryn with the Helldiver, but it wasn't strong enough, and I cleared out the last of his units to get the second control point.
While I didn't place, I did randomly win a gift certificate as part of the raffle, which I'll probably put towards some Hex Hunters. I feel like I'm using Striders too much and they seem like a good alternative. I'll leave you guys with some pics from my third game, the only one I remembered to photograph. Thanks for reading - its good to be back on the field!
Final view of the battle.
Pyg Burrowers shoot up Thagrosh. To his left you can see the cover I was hiding behind until I thought it was a good idea to move out and Slipstream my Seraph, who was fine where it was. I still don't know what I was doing.
The rest of my opponent's army. The Fennblade unit lost 6 members to the Striders on the first turn, and I really feel like I could have won this game had I not foolishly left my caster out.
If you can't be good, be lucky. Woo free moneys!
