Battle On!

  End of the League Escalation Tournament!  We had decided as a group to try out the SR2012 Beta rules, and they were interesting.
  4 League players ultimately showed up (6 folks were there during the day, Dan the shop owner who also played didn't have anyone to watch the shop for him, and Kyle the Troll player had to work so stopped in to say hi)
  First mission: Supply and Demand (Objective Scenario), 15pts, 3 min turns, 1 min extension.  The idea of the scenario, keep your objective 'alive' and its control zone clear while trying to destroy your opponents objective and contest his zone.
  I ran pMorghoul with this, I wanted to run both of my lists (Naaresh being my other caster, and both lists are in my previous post).  Plus I decided that pMorghoul would be easier to run at 3min turns.  My opponent had eKruger, and pretty new to the game.  The game went pretty quickly, as we only had 3min per turn, and a 30min round.  I ended up getting a quick control point by sacrificing my savage holding his beasts up (woldworden and a warpwolf) and then slamming my gladiator into the warpwolf, contesting his zone while keeping mine clear.  Game goes to time before I can run pMorghoul in and plink eKruger to death.

Megalith is on the other side of the table trying to find some daises to run through

  Second mission: A Flag Too Far (Flank Scenario), 25pts, 5pt reinforcements, 7min turns, 3min extension.  This was against Ryan, who was the other experienced Warmahordes player in the League.
  The idea was to control the scoring flag closest to you (in the picture, my scoring flags have the green chip on them) while having the scoring flag furthest from you contested.  You got bonus points for controlling both flags.
  Our TO Dustin decided to bump up the time restrictions because of the new players, so we went to 7min turns instead of 5min.
  Ryan brought his Circle forces with Baulder and Runs Through Daisies a.k.a. Megalith.  I brought Naaresh, and his Gators.  I am really enjoying Naaresh and his shenanigans.  This was also a reinforcement scenario, so I had Thrullg and a Croak Hunter available to come in on the right flank of the board, 20-some-odd inches from the back of my side of the table, and 3 inches in.  This is where I ultimately won the game, my reinforcements were solos and able to act independently and Ryan's reinforcement was a beast, a Woldwyrd.  I was able to run my reinforcements to my furthest scoring flag, and get a quick control point, while Ryan though it was better to have his beast closer to do major damage to my Iron Fleshed Gators.  There was much back and forth in the game, unfortunately my Gladiator died early, but luck was on my side as I did major damage with multiple free strikes from Gators on Megalith as he tried to charge my caster with ARM 20 from his whippings.  He rolled poorly, as his mind was taken out, did I mention my lucky rolls?  All the free strikes hit, and I rolled way above average for all of them, each hit doing 7-10 damage.  Megalith was unbuffed since Naaresh had Lamentation on, and Baulder was worried about upkeeps and casting spells with his 6 fury.  After Megalith, I used Cyclone to get away, and charged Baulder who was engaged with my Cyclops Shaman, only to come 1/8th of an inch away from melee.  But again my luck prevails as time is called, and I was sitting on one control point to nil and win.

  Third Mission: Demolition (Distant Scenario): 35 pts, 10min turns, 5min extension.  Without looking at the scenario packet, and working from memory, there was one objective in the middle, which, if controlled, allowed a warcaster/warlock within 4" of the objective place a 5" template on the table (within 4" of the caster) and do a magic POW 14 unboostable damage on everything under the template.  You got points for controlling the zone furthest away from you (2 zones, diagonal to the center).  Bonus points were awarded for using the blast on your opponents side of the table.
   I played against the final possible opponent JJ.  Now JJ is new to miniatures in general, and is about 10 years old, and is hard to keep focused on the game because there is so much going on in the store by this time.  He plays Cygnar and eHaley and lots of Jacks, which is fine.  But he allocates all of his focus out, and has his Sentinels and Chargers do most of the heavy lifting.  At some point when he gets older he will be a terror to play.  He understand how his Jacks work, and can do damage with them, but he doesn't focus fire on targets to take them out, and he doesn't understand how to use his solos in combination yet.  I did teach him you can charge your own guys, as I train wrecked my Bronzeback into a Gator and made room so i could train wreck off his Sentinels so I could get to Haley.  Train Wreck is a crazy animus.  He did put me off a turn by popping eHaley's feat and throwing my plan off, but i was able to at least maneuver things around to set up the train wreck next turn.

  So two games go to time, and I win by grabbing 1 quick control point and the games going to time, while the last was a caster kill.

  Ultimately I win the League Tournament, I came in 3rd place overall for the League, and won Best Painted Army!  So this League was pretty successful for me I would say, and I have a least 75% of my Skorne + many Minions all  painted.

   Mad props for Dustin the Press Ganger and TO out of Olde World Gaming in Elk Grove, CA for hosting the Slow Grow League.

Painting Challenge "whoopsies"

So I made an aggressive painting challenge to myself, and life got in the way and I was unable to fully finish the challenge.

What I did get done:
A full squad of Houseguard Halberdiers with UA to tabletop quality (bases done, but I need to finishing highlighting and the face/eyes).
Adeptis Rahn

As for the tournament, I did well.  I'm getting better, but again I was assasinated before I could assassinate. The last game falling under the NQ Challenge, which I failed, but figured out later.  Rahn had a Destroyer in his face, a Guard Dog barely within 6", and eIrusk behind him and a wall with defenders ward on.  Rahn was the only piece I had left, with the full 8 focus.  I was in line to do a direct hit  with Force Hammer on eIrusk, but he was at DEF 22, so I would have needed to roll above average (14) to hit.  I could have moved around the Destroyer (staying in melee range), to get an angle on the dog (who was in line within 2 1/2" of eIrusk), but if I moved, the dog would have been able to counter charge.  I could have teleported over, but then I didn't have the right angle on the dog to hit eIrusk.  I gave the game to my opponent, but later I realized I could have teleported the Destroyer, then teleported myself, and have the best roll to hit the dog, who would have hit eIrusk and do collateral damage.  That was my best chance of killing him and winning the game (he was down to about 5 boxes), but I would have needed to roll above average again to kill him outright on the collateral damage (POW 12).  I don't think the chain blast would have done better, boosted blast damage would have been about the same, but it would have been 3 focus allowing me to boost damage once, and the possibility of hitting him with the 2nd blast.  But it would have meant even more lucky rolls.

Pictures of the Halberdiers will come along when I finish the face/flesh highlighting

Painting Challenge! Plus, how I did over the weekend

   I believe my Trolls are upset with me.  Heading down to the Bay Area last time, my Trolls utterly failed me.  The next week, I went to the LGS and again, my Trolls utterly failed me.  I think they are upset that I'm cheating on them with some Legion, making the "Trollsaken" (Which was submitted to PP for their magazine contest, I should find out tomorrow what happened when the new No Quarter comes out)
   So, we are benching the Trolls temporarily.  The Retribution of Scyrah is calling me!  I pulled them out for 35 points of Tournament on Saturday.  Unfortunately either the day was bad and/or it was short notice and 4 people showed up.  We played round robin, killbox, I used Kaelyssa for the first 2 battles, then Rhan for my 3rd round.
   The first round was against, Kreoss, he had 2 squads of daughters, 2 squads of exemplars who ran at me. I shot one squad of daughters who were flanking with my Mage Hunters, and killed all but one.  The squad that was Defenders warded got a face full of combustion from a Phoenix, and the other half that didn't die, failed their command check and wanted none of the angry elves.  I'm feeling ok at this point, but things are getting closer, so I pop my feat (everything stealthed, models cannot be charged) and see what happens.  My opponent (Kristin who runs Warmahordes for the Vacaville LGS) charged Kreoss forward, popped his feat, knocking Kaelessa down, then one of his special units gave this ability to see through stealth for his Redeemer, 3 shots from him and Kaelessa was done.  But it did take all 3 shots, he completed his assassination run successfully, otherwise I would have had him.  It was a pretty quick game, ended on his turn 2.
   Next Jimmy, one of the local PGers was playing Lord Carver.  I was killing pigglets, and controling where we fought, and went for my assassination run, Kaelessa shooting him stealing fury and damaging him.  He had 2 fury on him, I stole the first one, he used the 2nd to transfer the 6 damage.  Then it was plink plink plink roll under average and do a few points with my next two shots.  It was up to my 4 remaining Mage Hunters to get in and close it out.  But they went plink plink plink, left him alive and he roflstomped me on his turn.
   Finally Nathan.  Now Nathan is one of the better players in the area, and I was facing Xerxes.  I decided to switch it up and play Rhan.  Highlight of the match, I charged a Bronzeback and a Gladiator with my full squad of Halberdiers.  Under their officer mini-feat, they were at pow 14 (+2 Brutal Charge, +2 from mini-feat) and +2 MAT as long as they were in melee range of another squad member.  I destroyed a slightly wounded Gladiator with 3 Halberdiers and the Soulless escort, and I brought the Bronzeback to 3 boxes left with 3 more Halberdiers (after a Force Hammer from Rhan doing some damage and knocking him down).  I admit there was some good charge dice rolling there, they were above average.  But it was a bit of a surprise to Nathan.  I then sent Narn the ninja to finish off the Bronzeback (charge, weapon master, 2 attacks, should kill it).  Plink, 2 damage on the charge, no damage on the 2nd attack.  After such a good turn to that point, I was demoralized and made mistakes and the Bronzeback was allowed to live.  The next turn the Bronzeback thrashed my Pheonix on the flank, and Xerxes moved forward, with Defenders Ward on him, no fury.  Since he was in base to base with another model, he was 15 def/22 arm.  My turn I do Rhan, pop my feat, Force Hammer Xerxes down, and let the Mages do their magic boosted magic thing.  I pull him out of B2B with the first mage so now he is a knocked down 5 def/20 arm and boost damage into him.  I don't kill him, and the next turn Xerxes gets in Rhans face and game over.
  What I learned, I need to play more.  I'm getting it, and I think against weaker players, I would have done better.  I had some moral victories, I was doing the right thing against very good players, they were able to use their experience to overcome my actions.

   To the Painting Challenge:

  Down at the "newer Elk Grove LGS" they are having a free 15pt tournament, and its closer than the Vacaville LGS who is also having a tournament, so I think just on gas spent, the Elk Grove store is winning.  But to challenge myself I'm going to have a fully painted army for the store.

  My plan is to bring the following 15 point lists, fully painted:

Adeptis Rahn
    Pheonix
House Shyeel Battle Mages
House Shyeel Magister
min unit Houseguard Halberdiers

Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper
    Chimera
    Hydra
min unit Mage Hunter Strike Force
    Mage Hunter Commander.

  I believe this is totally doable by working a little at a time each day on these models.  Kaelyssa and the Warmachines are fully painted and based, Rahn is almost finished, the Halberdiers, Mages and Magisters are started.  The MH Strike Force and Commander are primed.

   First up, finishing Rahn, and working on the Halberdiers who have the base armor done, they need flesh and highlighting.

   So expect more pictures this week!

Battle Report

Yesterday I went down to the LGS before heading to my sisters for dinner with the family and was able to get a couple of games in. I got there before Billy, one of the better local players, left. I brought with me a smattering of Trolls, I was going to play Gunnbjorn, but realized that I forgot his cards, so I decided to go with Grim instead. We decided to play 35 pts.

Grim Angus

Bomber

Slag Troll

Impaler

Fell Caller Hero

Janissa Stonetide

Trollkin Champ Hero

min Burrowers

min Fennblades + UA (Officer and Drummer)

Another one of our better players, Nathan, had been complaining about the new Ranking Officers and how broken the Menoth ones were. In particular, the Menoth Ranking Officers with Sea Dogs and Harbinger broke the game and was unbeatable. Billy took the challenge, and came up with using Cryx and Venethrax. Working from memory, the list went something like this:

Venethax

Bone Chicken arc node

Stalker

Skarlock

Satyxis Raider Captain

Siren

min Bile Thralls

Bloat Thrall

full Satyxis Raiders

Withershadow Combine

Nothing out of the ordinary, or over the top. But it did pack a wallop. Those Satyxis Raiders are just ugly, mostly because they don't take blast damage and have a 12" threat range with Advance Deploy and a toolbox of other special abilities. Plus it was my first time dealing with them, so that put a nice twist on it.

We played a scenario "The Gauntlet". I was really trying out the burrowers, because i just got them a couple of months ago, and knowing they can be pretty dirty, haven't used them yet. I didn't have any difficulties about pulling them out against Billy. In a nutshell, I lost to scenario, because the raiders wiped out my Fennblade tar pit and my solos who were holding my control area. Although he would have killed my caster because I had gone for the caster kill and didn't quite make it.

I made a ton of mistakes in this game, which I'm confident would have given me a better shot at winning if I didn't make them. There was also one big key roll which failed. I forgot my Fennblades vengeance move on turn 3, which would have put me in charging range of the Raider on my left flank (fennblades were on the right flank). They would have killed 3-4, and held them off another turn possibly. On the burrowers charge on the Bloat Thrall, the Stalker, and Venethrax, with the Champion Hero in range to use his 10 cmd, roll an 11 for their terror check, and get to stand there and get killed.

Finally, when i was trying to 'No Quarter Challenge' my way into a win, I freed up the Impaler and Grim so I could take shots at Venethrax, I forgot to pop Grim's feat, allowing him to miss on a boosted RAT roll. Otherwise it was possible I could have won on caster kill.

Result: Loss

Lesson Learned: Must play more and remember what I can do and DO IT

Another game, Billy pulled out Kara Sloan and some Cygnar, I played the same list, he had (again from memory)

Kara Sloan

Thunderhead

Hunter

Cyclone

Squire

Mechanik solo

Black 13th

Stormsmith

I had the same list, and we played Killbox. I was ready for Vengeance this time! 4 successful tough rolls later on his turn 1, none of the fennblades died, no Vengeance for me. The burrowers tied up and killed the Hunter, while throwing a couple of good hits on the Thunderhead who was holding the middle hill. After clearing them out, the Thunderhead was able to move forward and start zapping folks, the Champion hero was a champ and made 2 tough rolls! My turn, and also soon for me to leave to head to my sisters for dinner, I was 'sneaking' up my bomber on the left flank with phantom hunter upkept on him all game. I had to have a backup plan, just in case things went wrong, so I knew i had to kill the Thunderhead. I had to move Grim first, but to get him where i needed him to go, and out of the charge path to the Thunderhead for both of my Hero's who were alive. But I was starting out of the Range of the Bomber to put Far Strike on, so I put Far Strike on the Impaler, moved Grim so that I could pop my feat (yea I rememberd) so I could reduce the Def of the Cyclone who was in front and just to the left of Kara, behind the hill in the middle. Then Grim shots the snare gun at the Thunderhead, knocking it down. Fell Call Hero stands the Champ Hero up from knockdown (those 2 tough rolls) and charges the Thunderhead, does much damage. Hero charges the Thunderhead and scraps it. Backup plan successful, I'll live through the next turn with 2 transfers and the Bomber and Impaler without any damage. The last 2 burrowers kill the hunter with some fantastic rolls, scrap another one. The Impaler moves up, so he can put Far Strike on the Bomber and takes a pot shot at the Charger. From where the Impaler was, if I did crit slam the Charger, not only would have it been knocked down, but easier for the bomber to hit it, and get Kara in the blast damage. Well I threw another fury on the Impailer, and BLAMMO, crit slam back, and the angle was such that Kara got clipped and was also knocked down. I also rolled far enough, it didn't displace Kara back. Bomber rolls up 5 inches, and its able to drop bombs right on top of Kara's head, explosion, and a massive boosted roll, one dead cygnar caster.

Result: Win

Lesson Learned: When I remember to do things, I do much better. Crazy huh?

So, I shook Billy's hand, thanked him for the games, and headed off to my sisters for dinner. Good day for gaming, and food.