Friday, September 7, 2012

Intermountain Cup Prep!

The second Intermountain Cup is a upon us! What is the Intermountain Cup? It's just the biggest Warmachine/Hordes tournament in the Utah/Idaho meta! The inaugural Cup gathered 28 individuals from the represent themselves and their stores in gaming and glory! Essentially there is a tournament winner like most tournaments but also individuals play for their stores and the store who ends up with the most points at the end gets to keep the roving trophy at their store!



The tournament is held every six months and after doing alright in the last event I was sadly not going to be able to play do to my commitment to the National Guard, when lo to my surprise 2 days ago I was informed that my drill date had changed! Now I get to go but I haven't been preparing for this at all!  This is going to be minimum 5 rounds with 3 lists that must be played equally with standard steamroller charachter restrictions. Now this is going to be tough!

I pretty much only play the Protectorate of Menoth for competitions so that is at least a place to start. I have things narrowed down to 5 warcasters. Unfortunately I can only bring 3 so lets narrow down the possibilities!

First up is a warcaster who is locked in since I've been playing him up a storm and just got finished representing him to the utmost on the Chain Attack podcast, Vice Scrutator Vindictus! Check it out here: http://www.chain-attack.com/2012/09/episode-64-vindictus-vs-carver/

This is the easiest since I've been playing him he most. I'm actually switching things up from what I would normally play with him by going with his Theme Force and playing at Level 4! Lots of good bonuses from the tiers and no dead weight. I do need to figure out what his reinforcements are going to be since I can't take what I have been to stay in tier.

Second choice is the Harbinger of Menoth, also because I've been playing her quite a bit latley. Pretty much guaranteed I'll be bringing her so I'll just add her as my second list. Lots of focus and great spells means she pretty much makes everything better. Its really hard to go wrong with her.

I've taken her to a local small point tournament and played very tight and well with her so I feel confident in just expanding that list and taking a few more of the trimmings that will make her even better.

The next caster that I have the most experience with is Feora, Proctector of the Flame.  This Warcaster is hot with firepower and plays very strong!  I've admittedly stolen a great list from one the best Protectorate players on the Con Scene Phatasian and I love the list, small model count but hits like a ton of bricks. This list hits hard when it needs to and can also deal well with high defense models and infantry spam.

I'm not sure I really want to play her this time around though, just think I should change this up. Not sure as I don't know how rusty I'll be. While I was playing her quite a bit I've gotten lax with her and not played any tough games in quite some time.

Next up would be Grand Scrutator Severius, an oldy but goody. I used to play him as my secondary caster in all tournaments no matter what I used as my primary list since I knew he could handle most things people could throw at him. Lots of focus and even better spells than the Harbinger means he can dish out a big heaping of pain and does it well with range, melee and magic. Pretty good right?

Now I have taken him to a tournament up in Idaho recently and played a mean game with him but I usually get a little cocky with him and end up getting assassinated. Not good, plus I think lots of people will be counting on seeing him. That might make things a little harder.

Lastly and I know people will consider me crazy for this one, but I'm really pushing to use the High Reclaimer! I know people who are into this game are probably thinking I'm off my rocker right now but I've been reading up on some strategies with him from PP forum great Paradox and Gaston in the PoM forums and have modeled a list after theirs as well. I probably haven't played him anywhere near what I've played the others, but the 2 games I played with the planned list utterly slammed my opponents. His dark horse status and lack of play time from most others just leave people scratching their heads when I but him out.

Now the cons to all the greatness I just talked about are pretty bad. Small focus pool leaves a lot to be desired. He overcomes this with soul collection but that only goes so far. Also, a few factions just hose him, mostly Legion but to a lesser extent Cryx and Skorne with their soul collection and pretty much anything that can see through clouds or ignore line of sight. I still have this strong desire to play him though.

Well the Intermountain Cup is tomorrow and I need to figure out my lists and strategies so I'll leave you in suspense tonight and wait till afterwards to tell you fine folks what I'm played and how I did!