Tournament

IRISH MASTERS 2012

G’day, Warmachine (and Hordes) fans!  Here I present, for your delectation, an exhaustive report of my experience at the 2^nd Irish Masters, hosted by Leprecon 2012.  I was more excited about this tournament than a grown man ought to be, and that was in no small part due to the imminent appearance of Jason Soles – one of the original Warmachine designers.  He was bringing the trophies over from Seattle for us, and I was determined he wouldn’t take any back with him!  The format for the event was three 35pt lists (with 7pts reinforcements); but every list had to be played at least once, and no list more than twice over the five games across the weekend.  Here are the lists I took…

List one: (No Quarter Theme list – tier 3)

Dawnlord Vyros                                     (+6 points)
Hydra                                              (8* points)
Manticore                                    (7* points)
10 Dawnguard Sentinels                            (9 points)
+UA                                     (2 points)
+Marshalled Griffon                   (4 points)
10 Houseguard Halberdiers                  (7 points)
+UA                                     (2 points)

2x Arcanists                                     (2 points)
Reinforcements:
Manticore                                     (7* points)

A pared-down version of the 50pt list I took to Gamers World in February, but which didn’t do so well in my 35pt play-testing.  The extra 15pts gave me double Covering-Fire and a whole lotta Focus-efficiency (ie with the Tier 4 bonus), whereas I found just two Warjacks got destroyed too easily.  Anyway, this was a still my attrition-based, *anti-Stealth * list.

List two: (Theme list – tier 3)
Adeptis Rahn                                     (+6 points)
2xPhoenix                                     (20 points)
Arcanist                                     (0* points)
10 Houseguard Halberdiers                  (7 points)
+UA                                    (2 points)
6 Battle Mages                                     (5 points)
+ Soulless Escort                  (1 point)
3* Battle Magister Solos                            (6 points)

Reinforcements:
Arcanist                                             (1 point)
6 Battle Mages                                    (5 points)
+ Soulless Escort                  (1 point)

Except for a slight shuffle to include reinforcements (wouldn’t normally include Soulless Escorts), this has been my default Rahn-list for 35pts for a very long time.  He just dominates control-based scenarios, and can stay well back with his mighty Control Range and double Arc-Node… But has the most hard-counters of my three lists: Protectorate of Menoth and Circle Orboros can completely shut down his spells (as will any Stealth-heavy army), and the conspicuous lack of Pathfinder means Rough Terrain is a big problem too.  For all these reasons and more, my third list is:

List three (“Snipe, Feat, Go!”)

Ravyn, Eternal Light                            (+6 points)
Phoenix                                             (10 points)
Aiyana & Holt                                    (4 points)
10 MHSF                                     (8 points)
+UA                                     (2 points)
6 Dawnguard Invictors                            (6 points)
+UA                                     (2 points)
4 Stormfall Archers                            (5 points)

Epic Eiryss                                     (3 points)

Arcanist                                             (1 point)

Reinforcements:
Destor Thane                                     (4 points)
Narn                                              (3 points)

Models with Pathfinder to deal with terrain; Aiyana & Holt to hand out Magical Weapons (handy for Incorporeal models as much as Menite Warjacks); dirty Assassination potential to *hopefully* discourage my opponents from taking the nastier Control-Warcasters (looking at you, Harbinger and Major Haley!).  My rough kinda plan was to use each list once on the Saturday, and leave myself with full choice for the Sunday – but to let the Scenario and opponent of each game to take precedence in my choice.  So… How’d I do?

Game one – Anthony (Cryx)“Gauntlet” (#2)

Warwitch Deneghra                     (+5 points)

2x Deathrippers                            (8 points)

Skarlock                                       (2 points)

6 Bane Thralls                               (5 points)

+UA                                     (3 points)

6 Bile Thralls                                 (5 points)

10 Satyxis Blood Witches                 (6 points)

+UA                                       (2 points)

Bane Lord Tartarus                           (4 points)

Pistol Wraith                                    (3 points)

Warwitch Siren                                    (2 points)

Anto’s other lists were led by Skarre1 and Skarre2, both with juicy targets for Ravyn… but I didn’t want to risk the possibility of a Stealthy Warcaster (and $%&@ Bane Thralls) so took Adeptis Rahn.  Turned out I’d made the right decision for the scenario as well – only problem was the Killbox Artifice meant he couldn’t hang back as far as I’d like; but with a wall of Halberdiers between himself and the filthy undead horde, I figured he’d be Okay.

This was an extremely bloody fight for both sides: highlights being my left-flank Phoenix getting wiped out by just two charging Bane Thralls (with a little help from Parasite), and my Battle Mages thumping the Incorporeal Blood Witches into a panic with their Magical boxing-gloves (which I never previously knew they had!).  On my Feat turn I was able to clear my scoring zone and run a Battle Magister Solo in for my first Control point.

My screen of Halberdiers had almost evaporated by this point, and my remaining Phoenix couldn’t run/charge/do anything much except walk 4” and be Channelled through…  Luckily though, the zone was still pretty much uninhabited (did I mention it was a bloody game?!), and after the last two Halberdiers killed the Blood Hag with a single Combined Melee Attack, Adeptis Rahn was able to use his spells to Push/Slam the last guys out of the zone for the second Control Point and the win.  Good job really, or he would have died HORRIBLY the following turn!

Picture: Force Blast FTW!

WIN – 2 Control Points to 0

Game two – Ian (Minions)“Restoration” (#15)

Picture: Ian

Dr Arkadius                            (+6 points)

4x Warhogs                                    (28 points)

4 Bone Grinders                                    (2 points)

6 Farrow Brigands                           (5 points)

6 Slaughter-housers                           (6 points)

Ian had brought all three Farrow Warlocks to the tournament, and had painted his mass of Pig-flesh very well.  I’ve used Dr. Arkadius and Lord Carver myself before, but had yet to see what Sturm and Drang were capable of.  I decided to take Ravyn for the Scenario, as I figured her guys would shoot the Objective to rubble in one turn.  However, when Ian selected Dr. Arkadius and elected to go first, I changed my plan…

At DEF 15 and ARM 14, Dr. Arkadius is *theoretically* an ideal target for “Snipe, Feat, Go”; so long as he ends his turn within 22” of the Mage Hunter Strike Force.  He did; and I actually apologised to Ian before I even rolled any dice!  Guess what though…

After my failed assassination attempt, Dr. Arkadius Feated, and all of a sudden four hopped-up Warhogs were in my face – one in fact B2B with Ravyn after having Trampled over my useless Mage Hunters (luckily by then it was out of Forcing range so was unable to buy more attacks that turn).  I had another turn of un-boosted shooting to try and salvage the situation, but in the end only brought the deviant scientist down to two hit-boxes.  Ravyn then got splatted.

Picture: Warhog to the face…

I ended the game with only 1 army point, from killing half a unit of Bone Grinders!  For all that my dice failed me, I didn’t deserve to do any better because I’d ignored the scenario, and gone for the Assassination without any sort of contingency plan.  Well done Ian!

LOSS – 0 Control Points to 0

Game three – Adam (Skorne)“Envelopment” (#12)

Picture: Adam

Archdomina Makeda                           (+5 points)

Cyclops Brute                                    (5 points)

Molik Karn                                    (11 points)

Titan Gladiator                                    (8 points)

4 Beast Handlers                           (2 points)

10 Praetorian Swordsmen                           (6 points)

Agonizer                                    (2 points)

2x Ancestral Guardians                           (6 points)

Reinforcements:
Rhinodon                                             (7 points)

If I wanted to keep all my options open for the Sunday, then I had to take Vyros this round… but I took a risk and selected Rahn for the second time, figuring that whereas he doesn’t mind fighting Skorne, he HATES fighting Menoth and Circle, and I could end up fighting one or t’other the next day.  Besides, this was another scenario which Rahn ought to dominate.

I’ll not dwell on this battle; suffice to say that it was my best game of the weekend.  Adam, who is an incredibly nice guy (even though he kept trying to distract me with his dodgy dancing), was actually a Trollbloods player, but had to borrow his mate’s Skorne because his latest order hadn’t come in on time.  He told me he hadn’t played against Warmachine armies much, and I got the impression he didn’t know the Retribution at all…  One day I’d like a rematch against your Trollz Adam, so if you’re reading this, please contact me!

Picture: Rahn DOES love scenarios…

So Saturday was done, and although I was disappointed with Game two, I was reasonably happy with my overall performance.  I was out of the running for the awesome trophy (unless some very weird stuff happened on Sunday…), but figured I was still in the running for a podium-finish.  BRING IT ON!

WIN – 3 Control Points to 0

Game four – Gerry (Legion of Everblight)“Diversion” (#17)

Picture: Gerry

Lylyth, Shadow of Everblight                (+5 points)

Nephilim Bolt Thrower                           (6 points)

2x Ravagore                                    (20 points)

6 Blighted Nyss Striders                           (6 points)

+UA                                    (0* points)

6 Blighted Nyss Striders                           (6 points)

Strider Deathstalker                           (2 points)

Gerry straight-up told me who he was taking this round before I even had a chance to look at his lists (Kallus and I believe Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight were his other options), *probably* because I’d been telling him for weeks just how much Epic Lylyth makes the Retribution cry!  Certainly, had I taken Ravyn it would have been a very one-sided match, so I took Vyros and hoped he’d be able to tough it out.

I immediately screwed up my deployment by putting the Sentinels on the WRONG SIDE of a house from the Flag they needed to defend; but luckily they had enough SPD to get there by turn two, and enough ARM to survive the Striders’ bows.  Vengeance helped me out a lot here, and for the first time I can remember, the Offcier survived all game!  It was at about this point that we realised we hadn’t deployed properly…  Whoops!

Picture: “radial deployment, you say?”

On the other side of the table, Lylyth and her Battle-group were having uncharacteristic trouble mowing down my guys.  Even the three Halberdiers that were on fire managed to beat out the flames!  I managed to sneak in a Control Point by running my soon-to-be-dead Manticore up to the flag under Mobility the same turn a single, solitary Sentinel (say THAT ten times fast) put a toe into the Zone.  I tried to engineer a second point, but “Dice Down” was called.  I won on first tie-breaker, and now feel like I‘ve *sharked* Gerry with all my talk of how broken eLylyth is – honestly, I was expecting to get wiped out!

WIN 1 Control Point to 0

Game five – Harry (Cygnar)“Incursion” (#7)

Picture: Harry

Commander Adept Nemo                         (+6 points)

Charger                                             (4 points)

Lancer                                             (6 points)

Stormclad                                    (10 points)

Squire                                             (2 points)

6 Arcane Tempest Gun Mages                  (6 points)

+UA                                    (2 points)

Aiyana & Holt                                    (4 points)

Arlan Strangewayes                           (2 points)

Gorman di Wulfe                                    (2 points)

Journeyman Warcaster                           (3 points)

Ooh, I LIKE this scenario!  Partly because I have my own cool little flags made from spare Myrmidon parts.  I decided to take Ravyn because I reckoned I could out-shoot any of Harry’s own gunlines (he also had General Adept Nemo and Siege I think, though I don’t remember which list he’d already used twice).  Harry chose table-side.

Picture: Gunline vs. Gunline

…Turns out I was right!  On my Feat Turn I turned the Lancer and Stormclad into wreck-markers, and the following turn I wasted the Charger, the Journeyman Warcaster, the *fake* Aiyana & Holt (because mine were the real ones…) and Gorman Di Wulfe.  By the time the smoke cleared there was no way for Cygnar to contest my last Control Point in the third turn (I also got lucky with that – the one on the left disappeared which was ideal), so I won my last game of the weekend.

Thanks for the game Harry – I’m worried I didn’t shake your hand afterwards, and have been worried about it ever since!  See you at Itzacon, Maybe?

WIN – 3 Control Points to 0

Results and stuff…

With nine Control Points over the weekend, I JUST edged out Jason Soles for 3^rd Place, as he also had four wins over the tournament (he’d played five additional games over the weekend just for the Craic – beating me both times we faced off…).  I won a nifty Steamroller certificate and commemorative coin, and a hardback Prime Rulebook signed by the development team.  I also won the randomly-assigned fully-painted army prize, which was a cool poster of Kommander Strakhov that I bullied Jason into signing for me!

Picture: Me & Jason

All in all, a fabulous weekend!  Well done Stu for organising the event, and thanks to everyone who took part.  I hope to see y’all around on the forums and the next few tournaments.  I’m taking Garryth and Kaelyssa to Itzacon this weekend – who’s up for a beat-down?

Parenthetically yours, (Neil)