Showing posts with label Harbinger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Harbinger. Show all posts

Monday, November 19, 2012

Changing Metas: Part 2


So I promised a followup on my first tourny experience in my new meta so here it is.  First off, I had some misconceptions about the tourny and had prepared 2/35 pt lists w/Reinforcements. This was not the case as it was a Foodmachine charity drive so it was 1 list no reinforcements and 2013 Steamroller Rules!

So I chose to use my Harbinger list as I have played it more and it wouldn't have the super hard counters that Silent Bob has.



First opponent was Chris running Makeda1:

Makeda
-Molik Karn
-Archidon
-Aptimus Marketh
min Karax
min Ferox
Tyrant Commander and Standard
Tyrant Rhadeim

New scenario with 2 offset objectives. You can score on each but you gain extra points for having your caster "dominate" your opponents. Basically control you opponents with you having your caster within 2" as well.  2 points for controlling your own and 3 for dominating your opponents. First to 5 wins.

Sets up on side with hill and has places for his models to hide behind during his 1st turn advance.  I set up with Harby in the middle flanked by a Reckoner on each side and Errants in front, Nicia on the side and everything else behind.

Opponent goes first and pretty much runs everthing forward and hides his Ferox, Rhadeim and the Archidon behind a big ol boulder and has the Karax run forward and the rest shuffles up behind them with Makeda casting Savagry on Molik Karn and Defenders Ward on the Karax.

My turn. 3 focus to both Reckoners. Errants move up and take a few pot shots at the Karax and kill 3. Reckoners get battle and assault forward and 1 hits the Archidon behind cover and the dice catch fire and do something rediculous like 14 damage to him. The other misses a Ferox. Vassal shots also miss. Nicia advances behind a wall. Harby pops feat.

Opponent drops Defenders Ward but upkeeps Savagery. Molik Karn fatewalkers himself and walks up pops an Errant and eventually kills Nicia behind the wall, he takes negligible damage from the feat. The rest of the models shuffle themselves so they don't take blast damage. Archidon tries to contest and take out a Reckoner. charges out of control area and into Awe range but still hits and does 6 damage.

Reckoners get 2 focus. Battle on Reckoners and the Archidon takes damage and a Ferox goes down. Errants shoot up 2 more Karax and I end my turn. 2 CPs

Opponent upkeeps Savagry and has Karn go up and kills some more Errants and fatewalkers himself. Marketh juggles Savagry onto Rhadeim and Tyrant commander uses press forward on him as well and Tyrant commander advances to contest. He then goes on an extreme flank ties up my Hierophant but misses due to Awe. Makeda pops her feat and holds fast on the hill. Karn fatewalkers himself up next to her and on of the remaining Ferox and the standard. Archidon tries to contest and take out a Reckoner. Charges out of control area and into Awe range but still hits and does 6 damage.

This is the turn for exploding dice for me. I hand out some focus to Reckoners and shoot Marketh and kill the archidon. Harby floats over and drops a POW 19 Cataclysm on Rhadeim de-catting him. I forgot that he was a dragoon and curse myself for having the Harbinger so close to him with armor piercing as she has matyred for about 4 damage and could conceivably be 1 shot. Vassal goes and walks into combat with him and shoots him with his Arcane Bolt and rolls fire and rolls and 11 followed by a 12 to kill Rhadeim!  I kill the Tyrant commander and 1 more Ferox. 

Molik Karn Frenzies! Up till this point I haven't talked about tickets and rerolls as they weren't too imporant but my opponent re-rolled his dice twice for the frenzy check and still fails and Karn kills that last Ferox so they don't come back from the feat. Tyrant Commander comes back. opponent decides to jam what he has left to block CP gains.

this turn I mop up the Tyrant commander again and gain 2 more CP. pass turn.

Karn recovers and due to side step shenanigans gets into good position and blocks me from winning on scenario this turn and Makeda blenderizes some Errants and casts Defenders Ward on herself.

I give Reckoners focus and cast Purification and shoot Makeda and then the second Reckoner drops her.

rough game for my opponent as even when he had me reroll it wasn't enough to make me miss.

 Opponent 2 was Yann running Skarre 2:

Skarre2
-Deathjack
-Arcnode
-Arcnode
Blackbanes
Revenant Crew
Rengrave
2 pistol Wraiths

Scenario has 2 rectangular zones and an objective. The objective is a mortar with some wonky aiming rules. You score points by destroying your opponents objective or holding or dominating the zones.

Yann pays 10 tickets so Errants do not advance deploy.

Yann goes first and pistol wraiths into the zone and and Arcnode as well. Deathjack advances and casts the armor buff on himself. Everything else advances.

1 Reckoner gets 3 focus the other gets 1. Harby advances and casts Purification and drops the Armor buff and Admonition off an Arcnode and pops feat. Nicia runs and engages both pistol wraiths. The fully loaded Reckoner assaults and damages up the Deathjack.  I realize I have nothing better to do wit my other Reckoner and have him use his 1 focus to assault his arcnode in the zone to mostly just getup the field. Miraculously he hits with no focus. knocks out his movement and I consider this pretty darn good. Errants run and spread out to get lots of coverage to try and negate charges and shooting. Vassals enliven reckoners.

Skarre pops feat and picks herself, Deathjack, Regrave, Quartermaster and Arcnode. Pistol Wraiths move away and end up killing Nicia and deathchills a Reckoner. Deathjack slams the other Reckoner but fails to knock him out of the zone. Blackbanes goes on an extreme flanking maneuver and take no damage. Revenant crew shoot some errants but I martyr to keep them alive.  uses the mortar to kill some support.

I give the deathcilled Reckoner 2 focus. choir battles, and he kills a pistol wraith, gets ancillary attack and kills the other. Errants again run, tieing up the Deathjack so he won't be able to walk up to my Reckoner without taking freestrikes and getting a toe in the zone. Book goes up and does no magic in range of the Deathjack. I use the mortar to attack a pirate near Rengrave and roll fire again with the blast damage enough to kill him but Yann spends tickets to make me reroll so he lives.

Pirates advance and start charging Errants. I use martyr to keep the one in the zone alive but take a lot of damage. Rengrave then aims into combat and pops the last Errant like a boss! Deathjack gets focus and decides to take 1 freestrike to kill the Reckoner and again damage explodes in my favor the deathjacks cortex gets taken out removing all his focus! he does kill an Errant and heals himself as I couldn't martyr anymore. Blackbanes run to engage errants, book and reckoner.

I load up the Reckoner near deathjack with 3 focus and give the other 1 focus. Harby casts purification. choir chants battle and the Reckoner completly wiffs his turn! Out of 5 attacks he connects with 1. Oh well, those good dice rolls had to be countered somewhere. I kill the arcnode in the zone with the other reckoner. remaining errants try and hurt the deathjack but flop as well.

Yann, realizes I have no magic weapons engaging his pirates and promptly charges the Harbinger and they dirtnap her.

Super tough game but man it was fun! Yann walks away with 2-3 CP, I honestly don't remember since I can't remember how this one was scored. Sorry guys!

Round 3 Jonathan with Venethrax:

Venethrax
-Seether
-Arcnode
-Arcnode
Wraith Engine
min Bane Thralls with UA
min Bile Thralls

Scenario is Sacrifice and has a 12" circle zone on one side and a flag on the other. Big change on rules is that what ever is causing you to score points takes damage and if for some mysterious reason you find a way to not take damage from POW 20 feat damage you can't score. This part of the scenario was promptly forgotten by myself and Jonathan. Again first to 5 CP

Jonathan also pays so my poor Errants don't advance deploy.

Jonathan runs things up and casts the armor buff on Venethrax.

3 focus to both Reckoners again. Errants move up and pop 3 bile thralls. 1st Reckoner Assaults and catches Jonathan off guard and blasts his Seether hard and takes out movement! seeing my luck I use the vassal to hit him again. I then move Nicia up to try and get another Bile thrall so I won't get purged on and miss range by 1/4" and realize I move her into the assault corridor that I had built for the second reckoner to shoot the Seether again. I decide to make the best of the situation and shoot his arcnode and again dice explode and leaves him with 3 boxes but no node anymore. I have the Vassal make him shoot again and kill the Bile Thrall Nicia should have killed. Harby cast purification and feats.

Jonathan decides to get the Seether forward to contest the zone and is about 1 1/2" from Reckoner. Wraith Engine goes in and tries to kill Nicia but can't hit her defense. Everything else sits where they are to not take damage.

3 focus to jacks again. Harby casts Crusaders Call. Reckoner kills seether and shoots the other arcnode. Other Reckoner kills Wraith Engine. Nicia charges into Banes and fails to kill her charge target but kills the arcnode and sprints to engage back 4 models. Errants charge in and kill a few and quick work the last Bile Thrall. 2 CP Scored.

Jonathan move his node and Venethrax up and camps.

At this point I end it by loading both Reckoners up and beating down Venethrax.

Great day as I met a lot of new people and had a good time. I would like to say that I didn't mention re-rolls unless I thought they were important. Also I think I did well because of key points when my dice just decided I needed to win, not because I was really out playing everyone.

So going 2-1 with all them CPs I got second place!







Sunday, November 18, 2012

New meta, new games!

Today will be my first tournament in my new meta! Always exciting to be sure, so I can't wait to see what things are prevalent here.

So first off are my lists!

Harbinger
-Reckoner X 2
-Hierophant
Nicia, Tear of Vengeance
The Covenant of Menoth
Vassal of Menoth X 2
Minimum Choir
Maximum Errants Exemplar + UA

Reinforcements
High Paladin Dartan Vilmon
Paladin of the Order of the Wall X 2

So I've run a similar list to this at 50 pts and feel very comfortable with it.  I believe it has lots of good matchups against Hordes and can easily assassinate with the Reconkers if opponents leave their Casters open. It can also attrition fairly well.

High Reclaimer
-Reckoner
-Vanquisher
-Hierophant
Maximum Exemplar Bastions
Maximum Holy Zealots + UA
Minimum Choir
Orin Midwinter
Vassal of Menoth
Wracks

Reinforcements
Mimium Choir
Repenter
Vassal Mechanic

I keep toying with the idea of playing Silent Bob competitively and have brought him to 2 casual events in the last 2-3 months and feel this would be a good chance to get him some more table time. Again this is a slimmed down version of one of my 50 pt lists but I feel it can still attrition well and can be super frustrating to players especially new ones. Obviously the hard counters to this is Legion of Everblight and Retribution of Scyrah, plus the various ways that some factions can get around the clouds but I hope to be able to take the fight to my opponents on my terms and believe careful play will enable me to do this.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Quest for Fully Painted: Panda Part 1

Recently I posted that I had won best painted army at a large local tournament. I'm a little ashamed to say that I did not have a fully painted force. There were only 2 fully painted armies out of 35 contestants so the judges decided to open this up to armies that were mostly painted. I won and got a Collosals release event poster signed by the Privateer Press Staff. Now to convince the wife it deserves to hang on the wall!

Now to the purpose of this post, since I was not fully painted and have usually had 1-2 things not painted while playing in tournaments, I've decided to lay down a goal to have at least 1 of my Warmachine/Hordes tournament armies fully painted, to include any Mercenaries or Minions I would take with them.



While I could get away with finishing up my Highborn Covenant army with Ashlynn D'Elyse which is probably 85% finished, I don't see myself playing them in a tourny any time soon. Same for the Trollbloods whom I've been slowly building up. So that leaves me with getting some Protectorate of Menoth to get painted!

As always it's best to plan your work and work your plan. This is some of the most useful advice I have seen given about hobbies whether it's painting miniatures or racing cars. If you don't have a clue as to what your end state is and your plan to get there you more than likely will not finish. So my goal is to get a force at a tournament fully painted. What steps do I need to take to make this happen? Well I need to decide what a fully painted force at a tournament means! Most of our local Steamrollers are 50 Point, 2 lists, with Reinforcements so that's my goal. So that means I need to know whats going into my lists. I know I'll be using 2 Warcasters most often and those are Vindictus and the Harbinger of Menoth. So now I pick what goes with them. To the lists!

Vice Scrutator Vindictus
-Hierophant
-Reckoner
-Reckoner
-Reckoner
Knights Exemplar Errants X 10
-Officer and Standard
Knights Exemplar Errants X 10
-Officer and Standard
Holy Zealots X 10
-Monolith Bearer
Exemplar Errant Senechal
Choir of Menoth X 4

Reinforcements
?

Harbinger of Menoth
-Hierophant
-Reckoner
-Reckoner
Knights Exemplar Errants X 10
-Officer and Standard
Vassal Mechanik
Vessel of Judgement
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal of Menoth
High Paladin Dartan Vilmon
Nicia, Tear of Vengeance
Knights Exemplar X 6
Choir of Menoth X 4

Reinforcements
Knights Exemplar Errants X 10
Exemplar Errant Senechal

As you can see there is some overlap in the lists which is good, this will keep me from painting 100 points plus casters but their is enough difference with the casters and selection that it won't feel like I'm playing the same list all the time. Also, and this is the big problem I currently have, I have no idea what to take for reinforcements with Vindictus. I'm using his tier list and the limitations are hurting me in what I have to take. I'll be putting thought into this but if any of you readers have a suggestion I'm more than willing to listen to it.

So now I have my lists I can concentrate on just these models to paint for the next little while. I actually have about 90% of both these lists currently painted but it's a mishmash of styles and ability. I will be going back and painting them all to the same paint scheme and style so I've added even more to what I need to do!On the bright side, the schemes are similar enough that those that are painted in my old scheme won't need to be stripped down to metal to be redone, so I shouldn't need to take a ton of extra time for this.

At the end of every post in this series I will be posting the lists again and they will be written with a line through what needs to be done.

Also I'm challenging all my cohorts here on the Geek Garage to try the same thing. It doesn't have to be a 2 Army challenge, heck, it doesn't even need to be Warmachine or Hordes. If someone wants to put the challenge down for a Dark Age Army, Malifaux Crew, Necromunda Gang, it's all good, I just want to get my friends motivated to get some more fully painted forces out on those tables.

Vice Scrutator Vindictus
-Hierophant
-Reckoner
-Reckoner
-Reckoner
Knights Exemplar Errants X 10
-Officer and Standard
Knights Exemplar Errants X 10
-Officer and Standard
Holy Zealots X 10
-Monolith Bearer
Exemplar Errant Senechal
Choir of Menoth X 4

Reinforcements
?

Harbinger of Menoth
-Hierophant
-Reckoner
-Reckoner
Knights Exemplar Errants X 10
-Officer and Standard
Vassal Mechanik
Vessel of Judgement
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal of Menoth
High Paladin Dartan Vilmon
Nicia, Tear of Vengeance
Knights Exemplar X 6
Choir of Menoth X 4

Reinforcements
Knights Exemplar Errants X 10
Exemplar Errant Senechal

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Panda's IMC Journey

Yesterday was the second Intermountain Cup held for the Utah/Idaho meta! Here is a rundown of my games and my opponents.  This is as accurate as I can remember but I'm pretty sure I missed a few things.

First up as promised in my last post are my lists.



Vice Scrutator Vindictus
-Reckoner
-Reckoner
-Reckoner
-Hierophant
Knights Exemplar Errants (Max)
-Errant Officer and Standard Bearer
Knights Exemplar Errants (Max)
-Errant Officer and Standard Bearer
Holy Zelots (Max)
-Monolith Bearer
Choir of Menoth (Min
Knight Exemplar Errant Seneschal

The Tier bonuses are great!
Tier 1: All models gain Pathfinder
Tier 2: A second Knights Exemplar Errant UA for free!
Tier 3: +1 to Starting roll
Tier 4: Heavy jacks in battlegroup Advance Deploy

This is great as the only models who have normal deployment are Vindictus, Choir, Zealots and the Hierophant. Having this much AD with a caster that boost speed means my army is sitting on objectives turn 1! Also the pathfinder to my heavy jacks means I get them where they need to be on the first turn no problem!

Also of important note is the spell denial aspect of the list. If I want I can make everything but Vindictus, the Choir and the Seneschal immune to spells on a turn.

Harbinger of Menoth
-Reckoner
-Reckoner
-Hierophant
Vessel of Judgement
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal Mechanik
High Paladin Dartan Vilmon
Nicia, Tear of Vengeance
Choir of Menoth (Min)
Knights Exemplar Errants (Max)
-Errant Officer and Standard Bearer
Knights Exemplar

This list is great against hordes. With a giant Purification radius and a feat that outright kills most infantry if they advance it has a lot of denial. Also the Ashen Veil stacks with Awe so living models are at minus 4 to hit if engaging a Reckoner! Lots of beasts can’t deal with that! The Vessel of Judement is an amazing scenario piece as one of the miracles just pushes things out of zones like no one’s buisness. Also the POW 15 boostable gun is nothing to sneeze at either. Combined with the Reckoners and Vassals I can get 3 POW 15 fully boosted shots and 2 POW 15 non-boosted shots plus the D3 POW 10 bounces that can be boosted as well. All with only 4 focus invested from my caster! This list can play havoc on a slow army. I’ve taken Heavies off the table in a round of shooting with this list!

In my last post I know I was talking about a ton of casters for my 3rd choice but I finally settle on this one

Grand Scrutator Severius
-Blessing of Veangence
-Reckoner
-Hierophant
Avatar of Menoth
Vessel of Judgement
The Covenant of Menoth
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal Mechanik
Vassal Mechanik
Choir of Menoth (Min)
Knights Exemplar Errants (Max)
-Errant Officer and Standard Bearer
Wracks

I felt like I had the necessary pieces with this list but I just wasn’t sure about it. I really wanted to try the Avatar with Defender’s Ward and all the other pieces were amazing with Eye of Menoth. Also being able to cast Ashes to Ashes twice a turn is a pretty good infantry clearer along with the Vessel of Judgement. This was definitely my weakest list as far as my ability to play and I think that will come into effect later.

Onto the games!

Game 1

Opponent: Jacob Faction:Ret Store: ?(Provo) Scenario: Guantlet

So I’m a little sketchy on everything being brought so bear with me if I’m wrong.  His three casters were Vyros, Kaelyssa and Rhan. He ended up choosing Kaelyssa.







Kaelyssa
-Banshee
-Discordia
-Sphynx
Dawnguard Sentinels
-Sential Officer and Standard
Houseguard Halberdiers
-Halberdier Officer and Standard
Arcanist
Arcanist
Eiryss, Angel of the Retribution

I chose Vindictus as he is really strong against Vyros and Kaelyssa with the reliance on troops he had and would just plain shut Rhan down with the anti spells available to the list.

He wins first turn and moves his troops up my left side with Halberdiers moving fast and getting ready for a possible 2 turn charge with the Sentinels moving slowly up the middle. All 3 jacks move up my right side with focus and power booster from the Arcanists and Eiryss doing an extreme flanking maneuver to my right into a forest.

I deploy each unit of Errants on a wing with my Jacks in the middle to move where I need to put them to counter his. Everything else is pretty much just behind all this. I put a focus onto each Reckoner and cast Sac Lamb on a Zealot to bring all jacks up to 2 focus and Defenders Ward onto the Errants opposing the Houseguard and pop feat. I end up shooting the Pheonix(?) setting it on fire with a crit twice and Discordia once. The Errants on the left end up moving up and shooting the front rank of the Halberdiers and just 1 or 2 sentinels triggering Veangence next turn which I don’t mind since I have the feat up.

Next turn he uses his Veangence move and gets into position to charge, rolls a bit of fire damage onto his Pheonix. He charges 2 Sentinals into one of the Reckoners and does good amount of damage with the first. I inform him he takes a damage from the feat which kills that model and declines to make further attacks. He then moves his Halberdiers up to engage the Errants on the left. Eiryss stays in the forest while his jacks move up and start shooting doing decent damage on 2 Reckoners and a spray from Discordia which kills 3 Errants on the right. He walks the Pheonix up and hits one of the Reckoners a couple of times doing enough damage to take out a Cortex and movement and doing enough damage to itself to take out its field boxes.

I give Reckoners some focus and sit back. The Errants on the left start manhandling the Housegaurd. The Errants on my right charge and bring Discordia down to 6-7 boxes and Eiryss but fails to hit.. I walk one of my Reckoners to engage both his other heavies and proceed to smack the Phoeonix but roll small on damage and don’t wreck it but do enough to take out the generator this time.  I send the Seneschal in to do some damage but he misses the assault and the charge.

He digs in with the Sentinals and takes out a few Errants but the Seneschal keeps sacking the hits from his Banshee to other Errants. Discordia kills one Errant and and Eiryss hits with both initials but doesn’t damage. Kaelyssa shoots an Errant and hangs back.

This turn the Zealots move up and bomb the Sentinal Standard bearer since he has no weapon and cannot be engaged. It takes 3 ti finally clear them out but it does free up the Seneschall to Assault forward and kill the lone Arcanist left in the back of the Zone and the Reckoners move up and smash the Banshee and Pheonix while the Errants on the right finish off Eiryss and Discordia. I score a CP.

Kaelyssa and Wyshnailer are the last 2 models left and move into the zone to prevent another point.

I charge the Errants and Seneschal into his caster and end the game.

Win

Game 2

Opponent: Jay Larsen Faction: Cryx Store: Gameopolis (IF) Scenario: Destruction

This round my opponent was Jay Larsen of Chain Attack fame! His 3 lists are eSkarre, pSkarre and eGaspy. Even though I played Vindictus last round I felt that this would be my best list as I have seen Jay play eSkarre on this scenario every time he was able to Since I figured my non-targetable by spells army would prevent too many Perdition shenanigans. Guess what? He chose eSkarre.

 Skarre, Queen of the Broken Coast
-Deathjack
-Nightmare
-Arcnode(does it really matter which one?)
Satyxis Raiders
-Sea Witch
Pistol Wraith
Satyxis Raider Captain
Rorch and Brine (AKA Baby Bacon and Ninja Pig)
Necrosurgeon and Stitch Thralls
Warwitch Siren
                                               Ragman

Jay goes first.

Sets up with the Raiders on my left with the Capain, Nightmare and Arcnode next to them. Skarre in the middle next to Ninja pig and Deathjack to the right with the Pistol Wraith on the far right. Nightmare’s prey is the Errants on the left.

I set up very similar to my last game with the Reckoners mostly to the right to protect my objective.

Jay moves the Deathjack up a few inches, extreme flanking maneuver with the Pistol Wraith. Moves laterlaly with the Satyxis but still with bob and weave. Nightmare moves up behind a wall as does the Arcnode and Skare who casts some armor buff on the Deathjack. I feel he is making sure he gets into range to perdition 1 or 2 jacks into the midsts of my guys.

I give each Reckoner a focus and move up cast Defeders Ward onto the Errants opposing the Raiders and pop Feat. I move up the Errants with DW to about 13 inches out from the Nightmare and shoot 1-2 shots into the Raiders but miss.  Choir does Hymn of Battle on the jacks and thanks to AD they all get boosted shots on the Deathjack! The first goes and does about 5 damage and I’m feeling good. The second rolls all 1s! the last goes and does about 4 damage. The Errants on the right move up and jam around my jacks and objective and one takes a pop shot at the Pistol Wraith hiding in the forest.

Jay takes a few minutes and realizes I’ve forgotten to block complete line of sight through the masses of spell immune troops to my caster! He power boosts the Arcnode which runs all the way up in front of my line. He has Skarre cast Perdition into Vindictus and misses but boosts after the fact and hits, does about 4 damage and moves the Deathjack up, pops feat and picks his objective, Skarre, Ninja Pig and Baby Bacon and the Deathjack. Deathjack moves into combat with 2 of my Reckoners. He rolls fire and takes out my Cortex on the first one and does a lot on the second one, he swings at an Errant but keeps Self Sacrificing to prevent a soul tokens and healing. The pistol Wraith moves up Shoots one Errant which kills and is short on the next. Baby Bacon performs diversionary tactics and they move up and Ninja Pig charges into the Third Reckoner and Does decent damage. I remember all damage from feat except on the Deathjack so he doesn’t take nearly enough damage from all the swings he does.

I honestly don’t remember what I do this turn other than killing the Pistol Wraith and jam move around the objective. I might have shot at a few Raiders. Oh, I did the no spells on my jacks but am 1/2” short on 1.

Ninja Pig Frenzies and takes out the Reckoner he is engaged withs beat stick.This turn the Deathjack moves up and beats more on my Reckoners and brings 1 down to just a single Cortex box left and goes through enough Errants to get 1 soul token and heal 6 boxes! He also casts the Feedback spell on the Reckoner without a cortex. Baby Bacon shoots and misses twice on Errants. The Raiders finally charge and lucky for me he only gets 2 over the wall the Reckoner with feedback on him, he actually misses quite a few of the attacks due to Ashen Veil and the wall so I feel pretty good but he did do about 6 points of damage due to double feedbacks. He kills about 3 more Errants with the rest of the Raiders.

This turn I drop Defenders Ward and recast on Vindictus and give 2 focus to the Reckoner with just the cortex and use the Choir for Hymn. That Reckoner proceeds to Headbutt with boosted hit on the Deathjack. I then charge the Errants in on the right and get about 4 on him and 2 on Rorch. Both miss on Rorch and the rest do decent damage onto the Deathjack. The Reckoner without a cortex smaks the Deathjack and leaves him with 1 box on his Cortex! The raiders are stuck in and kill a few with the Errants. The Officer and Senechal both charge Ninja Pig and both miss. But on one of the charges that kills a Satyxis I get a lucky shot on the Sea Witch and kill her! The Zealots pop Great Destiny move up and lob bombs after lots of bad damage roll one finally kills the Deathjack and I kill 1 or 2 more Satyxis.

The Seawitch moves up and gets a good spray onto a non errant gets about 3 kills with this. The other Raiders still plink at the Reckoner but are only doing damage about every 3 hits. Skarre moves up and casts Perdition on a Zealot and uses this to move up Nightmare to finish off the Errants on the right who were it’s prey. He switches prey to the Zealots.

I kill Ragman with some Errants and heal Vindictus up a bit and move as far as I can to my right since Jay is down to about 2 minutes on time and hope its enough. I move the Zealots to try and bomb the Nightmare but forget about Perdition and he moves to engage. I end up killing one of my own Zealots and do minimal if any damage to the Nightmare.

Skarre loads up the Nightmare with  focus and uses spells to free him up from combat with a Perdition and has the Nightmare go over to indictus and take him down in 2 shots

Loss

Game 3

Opponent: Mike O’Donnal Faction: Cryx Store: Heebee Geebees(Logan) Scenario: Process of Elimination

I apologize, I honestly don’t remember what his other lists were. I just remember that eGaspy hadn’t been chosen yet so I figured it would be him. I figured Severius could handle this.


Lichlord Aspyhxious
-Slayer
-Arcnode
-Cankerworm
Skarlock
Bane Thralls (Min)
-Bane Thrall Officer and Standard
Bane Knights (Min)
Bile Thralls (Min)
Banelord Tartarus
Pistol Wraith
Gorman DiWolfe, Rogue Alchemist
                                     Darragh Wraithe

I go first and put out Eye of Menoth on Sevi, Vision on the Blessing and Defenders Ward on the Avatar. Everybody then runs up to the zones.
Mike moves everybody up with the node and pistol wraith going to my right around a forest with the banes up the middle with the big jack and the Knights up my left with the Cankerworm. Asyphxious cast Hellbound and some clouds.

I give my Reckoner 2 focus and have the Blessing move up close to his Arcnode. I cast Ashes to Ashes on his node and get 3 additional bounces and do about 8 damage to his node, kill the Pistol Wraith and 2 Bile Thralls. I have the Errants move up through the forest and get shots on 3 Biles and kill but leave 1 left alive while I curse myself for this. The Avatar moves up and Gazes behind a wall at the Bane Thralls. He also gets Enlivened. Here is where I screw up. I look at the Vessel and choose to have it sit where it’s at and shoot, I have the option to go after Bane Thralls or Knights and choose Thralls... who have Stealth... it misses and ends its activation. The Reckoner hits his arcnode and does decent damage but leaves it with its arcnode intact. I have the Vassal give Ancillary attack and the Reckoner kills it.

The Biles end up Purging and kill most of the Errants. The Warwith Siren moves up and engages but fails to kill an Errant. Daragh moves up and cast Deathride. Tartarus goes up and curses and hits the Avatar doing a little damage. The Bane Thralls move up and get 2 charges on the Avatar who walks Away from first from Enliven. The Knights move up and beat on my Vessel and has the Cankerworm finish him off. Asyphxious moves up and hides behind some clouds.

I drop Vision and cast Ashes to Ashes twice but only get 3 additiona hits in total, not a happy camper. Avatar moves over and kills his Slayer and Tartarus. My Mechanik heals him a bit. The Errants kill a few banes. The Covenant moves over and starts performing it’s No Magic Action.

Mike moves Asyphyxious up and tries to get his Thralls a line on the Avatar but still only gets 2 on him and does enough to take his sword out but he enlivens away next to my Mechanik. Cankerworm gets ready for possible charges next turn.

I get the Avatar healed up a bit. Cast Ashes to Ashes once and again get 1 additional. I forget to cast again and move away as I’m trying desperately to figure out how to kill more things. The Avatar kills a few more thralls but they make quite a few tough checks. The Covenant moves over and doe no magic.  Asyphxious moves up and pops feat but can’t teleport away but still gets enough weapon masters to put Severius into the dirt.

Loss

Game 4

Opponent: Bryan Faction: Trollbloods Store: Heebee Geebees(Logan) Scenario:?

His lists are Grim Angus, eDoomshaper, and pMadrack(?)

He hasn’t used his Grim Angus list so he chooses that while I take the Harbinger since I also hadn’t taken her and thought she was my best list against Hordes.


Grim Angus
-Blitzer Dire Troll
-Rok
-Impaler
-Earthborne Dire Troll
Whelps
Scattergunners
Thumper Cannon and Crew
Sons of Bragg
                                                      Fell Caller



I go first with with the Vessel of Judgement to the far right of my deployment zone my Reckoners next to him and the Harby next to the jacks. All the support is behing this wall with my Knights Exemplar on my left.  The Errants and Nicia are right on the edge of my deployment zone to the far right so that they can run into the zone turn 1 and contest for the rest of the game.  Essentially everything runs forward and pop feat.

Bryan has his most of his units skirt the edge of my control radius and has the Scattergunners move up onto a hill and get Dirge of Mists.

I move up into my scoring Zone and have Nicia go up, kill a Scattergunner and spint back. Vilmon moves up into the zone and Impervious Walls. (This is what he does for the rest of the game)

Bryan moves up and shoots at my Reckoners and doesn’t deal much damage. He gets lots of his models ready for a good alpha or countercharge next turn. I score a control point.

I move up and have my Reckoners pop 1 of the Sons of Bragg and have the Vessel shoot down some Scattergunnes with help from Nicia and the Errants. The Scattergunners fail a command check and flee. I score another point.

Bryan has Rok charge and kill 2 Errants with his spray and does decent damage onto the Vessel. The Sons of Bragg charge into the Errants and kill a few. The Scattergunners fail to rally. The Earthborne moves up and kills a few Errants. The Blitzer moves up and kills does some damage onto one of the Reckoners. He gets a whelp into the control zone but decides to call it as there is no way for me to not win at this point.

I think Bryan played well but was just unfamiliar with his list and played overcautiously because of it. I think with more practice time and scenario play he will improve drastically.

Win

Game 5, final round and last chance to match my previous record of 3-2

Opponent: Spencer Faction: Trollbloods Store: Heebee Geebees(Logan) Scenario: Restoration

Again my memory fails me and I don’t remember his other lists. He ends up taking Calandra and I take the Harbinger again.

Calandra, Oracle of the Glimmerwood
-Dire Troll Bomber
-Dire Troll Bomber
Fennblades (Max)
-Fennblade Officer and Drummer
Kriel Warriars (Max)
-Kriel Standard Bearer and Piper
-3 X Caber Tossers
Jannissa Stonetide
Fell Caller Hero

I get to go first. I have my Errants and Nicia run up behind a wall in the middle of the zone with a Reckoner flanking each side. The Vessel of Judgement runs up on the right side just behind the zone and the Knight Exemplar run up the my left behind a wall. Harby runs up and Feats!

Spencer plays conservatively and has his models fan out at the edge of my control zone and I only kill 1 model with the Feat.

I give each Reckoner 2 focus and between this and Vassals I destroy the objective. Everything else just waits for the pain filled charge this turn. Vilmon gets into the zone and Impervious Walls.

Kriels charge in and kill 1 Exemplar, the Fennblades charge in and kill an Errant. I use the Vessel to have him Zombie kill one of the Fennblades. Awe really saved my bacon this turn. Everything else moves up cautiously. Big thing is Calandra cast Star Crossed

This turn I have the Harbinger cast Guided Hand on the Errants. With Guided Hand essentially crossing out Star Crossed, Errants start killing Kriels and Fennblades. They actually do more damage by shooting than in melee stangely enough. I’m able to kill a Caber off. Vilmon impervious walls and kills a Fennblade. Nicia kills one of the Sons of Bragg. The Vessel uses a miralce to get clear of Melee and kill some Fennblades. I clear the zone and score my first point.

This turn Spencer makes a come back! Calandra Feats! He gets more bodies into the zone to contest. the Sons of Bragg move up and kill some Errants. The Fennblades continue to work on the Errants and the Vessel of Judgement. He befuddles one of my Reckoners out and has him turned around and destroys it.

I give one of my Reckoners 3 focus.  Vilmon again Impervious walls and kills 1 Troll. The Vessel backs out and takes 2 free strikes and attempts to shoot a Fennblade to clear that side of the zone and even with boosted shots misses and ends up killing Vilmon! Nicea does some work and kill one of the Sons of Bragg and hides behind the wall again. The Knights Exemplar can’t kill the Kriel Warriors on the left part of the Zone because of tough! The Reckoner moves out to kill as many stray trolls as he can. I still can’t clear the zone! I charge a Mechanik in and he misses his attack! Harby drops a Cataclysm onto the Kriels and only kills 1 instead of 2, she camps the rest and flees!

The Calandra moves up and Befuddles my other Reckoner. Instead of charging in, the Bombers both shoot down my Reckoner and the tarpit of Menoth Vs Trolls starts going in Spencers Favor! Key notes for me thought: no Star Crossed this turn and no heavies in the zone!

No jacks mean Harby gets all her focus to herself. I decide with no star crossed up I can afford to use Cataclysm twice and boost twice on damage if necessary. The Vessel of Judgement moves up and uses the push miracle to free my get 2 Fennblades out of the zone and the Fell Caller hero off of my Errant Officer. He then shoots the Fell Caller and boosts and gets 1 additional bounce, I boost all damage rolls and kill the Fell Caller and make the last Son of Bragg take a tough check which he passes! I send my Errant Officer and the other last Errant over and kill the Son of Bragg on the ground. The Knights Exemplar have to kill 2 Kriel Warriors to clear the zone for my last control point to win by scenario. Because of the wreck marker from one of my own Reckoners I can only engage one of the important Kriels. I kill him. I have 2 models left to activate that have a decent chance of killing the Kriels, Nicia and Harby. I decided to have Nicia go first since she has essentially 3 chances to kill this last Krielwarrior. He only needs 1 hit and fails his tough check. I take a pot shot at Jannissa to try and get some extra points but leave her alive with 2 health. I end the turn, gain my last control point and end the game.

Win

Final Score 3-2

Placement: ? will update when the full results are out

I won best painted army!

Thoughts on the Tournament:

My best and worst games were both the ones I lost. Best was against Jay and my worst was against Mike. I’m not saying Mike didn’t soundly beat me but I just didn’t seem to have my head in the game and made some mistakes that Mike made sure I won’t do again in the future! lol

Nicia was my all star in the Harby list. With a possible 3 attacks and sprinting back to Awe protection she was usually DEF 18 against melee which made most people ignore her. The Vindictus Tier list is legite and makes running him very different. I don’t think I cast True Path more than 1 and never really felt like I needed to. Having so many models so far up the board before I begin makes this list ridiculously fast. I think I need to pick a different 3rd caster or play pSeverius a whole lot more, little mistakes with him are game ending!

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did writing it. If facts are wrong its because I’m dumb and forgot, not because of any malice, so please correct me if I’m wrong.

Regards

Happypanda!

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!