I can seeeee yooooouuuu..
A couple of weekends ago Crippled System hosted a 50 pt Steamroller tournament in beautiful Madison, WI,
with a bit of a twist. Every faction was allowed to have an extra bonded
warjack or warbeast in each of their lists, selecting a bond from the back
pages of Prime/Primal. If you already have a bond, you get two of them. If you
didn't have any, you get one!
Needless to say,
this changes things pretty damn dramatically, especially for Warmachine as the
difference between allocating 3 and 4 focus is night and day. Even for Cephalyx
and Convergence that can't get bond abilities, allowing them to have "extra
smart" monstrosities/vectors proved to be pretty amazing.
With this
interesting change in place, I decided to take the following lists:
Vyros, Incissar of
the Dawnguard
- Phoenix (Bonded: Wrathful [if a member of the battlegroup gets targeted by an attack the bonded warjack gets +2 to attack and damage rolls])
- 4x Griffons
- Aspis
Arcanist
Arcanist
Max Dawnguard
Sentinels + UA
Max Dawnguard
Invictors + UA
Only slightly
modified from my normal Vyros2 Griffon spam list, I made a last minute
substitution of Imperatus for the Phoenix due to hating how difficult that
sonofabitch is to put together and the fact that it was my only unpainted
model. For possible bonds I considered All-Terrain (Pathfinder) instead of
Wrathful, but I figured that with my relatively low warjack count for Synergy
Wrathful would be the most useful.
Ravyn, Eternal Light
- Hyperion (Bonded: Eyeless Sight)
- Sylyss Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker
Houseguard Thane
Eyriss, Angel of
Retribution
Lady Aiyanna and
Master Holt
Max Mage Hunter
Strikeforce + UA
Max Dawnguard
Invictors + UA
Min Houseguard
Riflemen
Solving the stealth
problem once and for all is the bonded, Eyeless-sighted Hyperion, particularly
on Ravyn's feat turn. Getting a bond made things a bit interesting when putting
this list together, as Ravyn's ideal turn is allocating the maximum amount to
the Hyperion, upkeeping Snipe and then re-casting it… which costs 7 focus, not
6. Including Sylyss helped deal with this problem, and I feel he was worth it.
Since this was my Cryx drop, Eyriss2 made her way in as well as Aiyanna and
Holt to give me some more punch.
Round 1: Ravyn vs
Gorten in Incursion
First round I got
paired, as usual, against my perennial opponent Josh. He had two lists to
potentially pair against me, an Exulon Thexis list with plenty of drudges and
monstrosities and a Gorten list with Earthbreaker and the usual Merc goodies.
He decided to go with the following Gorten list:
Gorten Grundback
- Ghordson Earthbreaker (Bonded: Artillerest)
Thor Steinhammer
Ogrun Bokur
Gorman di Wulfe
Max Nyss Hunters
Max Kayazy + UA
Max Pressgangers
...probably
something else.
I won the roll to go
first and deployed my Hyperion in the center across from a wall on my side of
the board. He deployed the Earthbreaker on my right flank near a line of sight
blocking obstruction, the better to hide Thor. I set out my troops in a line,
Invictors on the left, Riflemen on the right, and AD'ed my Mage Hunters on the
far right flank to go Thor huntin'. He counterdeployed his Kayazy away from my
scary scary Riflemen and AD'ed his Pressgangers up the middle.
Round 1:
Ravyn allocated one
to the Hyperion, the necessity of which caused me to vomit a bit in my mouth.
Ravyn cast Snipe on the Strikeforce and charged forwards, with everyone else
running up and spreading out in case of blast damage.
Gorten also
allocated one to his collossal and had his Pressgangers run to get in jamming
position. Everything else ran up behind, with Thor hanging out behind his
collossal. To finish off the turn Josh said "I'm going to do my trick
now", cast Solid Ground on Thor (camping 2), moved up, and had the Ogrun
Bokur slam him an extra 4" forward…
Round 2:
...right to about
14" in front of my Hyperion. I looked at the board, looked at the
Pressgangers that were blocking line of sight, looked back at Gorten, and said
"Yep, we're gonna kill him now." Ravyn upkept Snipe for free (thanks
Sylys!) and allocated 4 to the Hyperion. The half the Snipe'd Strikeforce aimed
while the others moved up to take shots on Thor, eventually killing him. The
aiming members took pot shots at the Pressgangers, once again showing that my
weapons apparently have Grievous Wounds when used against Josh's army.
With a flat plane of
no dudes in front of her and the Hyperion, Ravyn advanced cautiously, feated,
cast Snipe on the Hyperion and killed a Pressganger with her gun. Aiyana and
Holt advanced as well, killing another two Pressgangers and getting Kiss of Lyliss
on Gorten. Eiryss then snuck through the enemy lines, line up a shot on Gorten
and hit him with her crossbow to strip off Solid Ground and two focus.
The Hyperion turned
slightly and proceeded to fire. A fully boosted Starburst cannon shot and three
fully boosted Thresher cannon shots later and Gorten was dead.
After thoughts: Josh
and I agreed that the slam thing was cute but was probably a large part of why
he lost the game. We also discussed the matchup selection and agreed that
Exulon Thexis would likely have been the better choice thanks to the plurality
of Sacrificial Pawns and Shield Guards in the list. I think I have enough shots
to start downing the infantry, but the number of Monstrosities and how easily
they carve through collossals would have made it a very interesting matchup.
Game 2: Vyros2 vs
Goreshade2 in Close Quarters
After taking a break
to steal some Saga trades from Josh's apartment we got back to game two, where
I was paired up against Jason and his Cryx. I instinctively reached for Ravyn
before I took a look at his lists… and found no Banes. 0. Nadda. Instead he had
taken the novel approach of remembering that Cryx has some pretty cool 'jacks
and taken a lot of those.
A fan of the late
Councilman Ghyrrshyld, Jason was running Goreshades Cursed and Lord o' Ruin
with Krakens aplenty. Looking at the metal monstrosities I, feeling very, very
weird, dropped the Murder of Griffons against Cryx.
His list:
Goreshade the Cursed
- Kraken (Bonded: Maneater)
- Stalker
- Stalker
- Some kind of arc node
- Desecrator
Max Bloodgorgers
Three Necrotechs
Three Scrapthralls
I won the roll to go
first. The Kraken got predeployed and deployed… kind of stupidly, with my
bonded Phoenix in front of its Griffon body guards. Sentinels and Invictors
deployed centrally due to a large forest on my left flank.
Round 1: Allocate to
all but two of my jacks and run! The Phoenix let a pair of Griffons get in line
with it so that they could outpace it next turn. Vyros cast Synergy and charged
forward.
The rebel Ghyrrshyld
also had his forces run up, with one of his Stalkers sprinting along my extreme
left flank. Ghyrrshyld had the Skarlok put Occultation on Ghyrrshyld. The
Bloodgorgers moved up cautiously, trying to stay out of the Sentinels' threat range.
Round 2:
His Kraken
was in position to potentially charge my Phoenix, which as my main damage
dealer would have been bad. So Vyros upkept Synergy and allocated a few out
(can't remember how many).
The Sentinels
started things off by charging forwards, killing ~5 of the Bloodgorgers. The
Phoenix put some damage on the Kraken while a Griffon ran up to jam the Kraken
and prevent it from getting to the Phoenix. I then moved really poorly with my
Invictors, choosing to walk instead of run even though they had no targets.
Vyros wandered up but was just shy of the flag and feated, catching all of my
models.
Ghyrrshyld allocated
four the Kraken, 2 to the Desecrator and one to the left Stalker. The
Desecrator tried to take out the jamming Griffon but only managed to get
through half of its boxes. This left the Kraken to finish it off (feat move:
moving up another Griffon, but outside of 4" of the Kraken), Kill shot
activating to kill a Sentinel (feat move: move up another Griffon), then
killing another Sentinel to clear a line for the Bloodgorgers (feat move, move
another Sentinel to cover the gap). The Gorgers killed a few more Sentinels
(among the feat moves: Phoenix into striking position, Vyros into B2B with the
flag). Finally the left Stalker ran to engage one of my Arcanists.
Vyros scored 1,
Ghyrrshyld was contested by one of my Griffons.
Round 3:
Vyros upkept
Synergy, allocated 4 to the Phoenix and one to one of his Griffons. Sentinels
Vengeance away a few more Bloodgorgers and got into striking position.
Sentinels and
Invictors pounded on the Kraken, taking down about half of its health. Three
Griffons were able to get the synergy chain up to 3, killing one of the
Necrotechs blocking the Phoenix's path to Ghyrrshyld. Finally the Wrathful
Phoenix walked up and put the traitor away in two swings.
Game 3: Guardians of
the Gate vs Fist of Halaak in Fire Support
At this point we had
gotten to the top 4, consisting of myself, my friend Russell and his Skorne,
Chad running Bradigus FTW and our youngest player, Malachai, champion the
titanic force of nature that is Supreme Kommandant Irusk. Lord I love that
'caster.
I got paired up
against Russell and we quickly decided on running Fist vs Guardians, as Ravyn
wasn't going to be doing much and Russell generally plans on just running Fist
all day every day. His list:
Xerxis1
- Tiberion: Bonded (Berserk)
- Titan Gladiator
Tyrant Commander and
Standard
Max Cataphract
Cetratii
Min Cataphract
Incendiarii x 2
Min Cataphract
Arcuari x 2
Paingiver Beast
Handlers
Russell won the roll
to go first and deployed his brick centrally, mirroring the Arcuarii and
Incendiarii across the center. Tiberion and the Gladiator were deployed on my
right flank. Looking at the scenario I figured that with his heavies on the
right I'd have a better chance at controlling the left flag, so deployed my
forces just left of center with my Phoenix on the right.
Round 1:
The Fist advanced as
a block, everyone running or getting Desperate Paced. Defender's Ward went on
the Cetrati as usual.
As opposed to many
of my games, I had a difficult decision here. His Incendiarii are pretty
terrifying and can set my Dawnguard on fire with abandon, plus he might have
some charges at the top of 2. I thought about it for a while, then eventually
decided that feating turn 2 would be best once my forces were stuck in. I ran a
group of lights off to the left, two Griffons and an Aspis to shield guard any
Arcuarii shots and one of the Griffons blocked by the objective to prevent it
being dragged in. My other Griffons went off on the right. The Sentinels ran
up, spreading out to avoid AOEs and in two ranks to bait the Cetratii into
charging me. Finally I moved the Invictors, who blocked up my movement lanes
for the Phoenix and Vyros2 because I am good at this game.
Round 2:
SO MUCH FIERY DEATH.
The Incendiarii opened fire (literally!) and set a bunch of poor Dawnguard
ablaze. My first rank of Sentinels were
shield walled at and destroyed. Thankfully my right Griffons were out of
range to be hit by the Arcuarii, but one of my Griffons on the left was dragged
in and beat up a bit.
My round 2 I knew
was feat turn… but I had also not left Vyros2 in a position to walk to the
objective, because again, I am good at this game. But with a charge, I figured
that it could be done. All I needed to do was clear out the Arcuarii that were
contesting the flag and jam up the Cetratii so that they couldn't get to the
flag.
Vyros upkept Synergy
and allocated the rest of his focus to various Griffons. My Sentinels
Vengeanced and got into charging positions and managed to take out three of the
Arcuarii. This left a single one contesting, which I figured one of my Griffons
could finish off. So I started up the Synergy chain with a pair of charges…
that both failed to hit the DWard'ed Cetrati. And my other jacks weren't in
place to harm anyone, plus my Phoenix didn't have the range to shoot him, and
he was engaged so my Invictors couldn't help. So I sent in the lone Griffon…
and of course it failed to kill.
Nonetheless, the
Invictors ran into blocking positions, the Phoenix set some folks on fire and
Vyros advanced to the flag and feated.
Round 3:
Russell continued to
play Attritionmachine, killing all of the rest of my Dawnguard except for two
Invictors and the standard and feated with Xerxis. I used my feat moves to
prevent Tiberion from charging my Phoenix, as well as to continue to plug the
gap between his main forces and the flag. My two Griffons on the right flank
were mowed down by the frustrated elephant with ease, also killing a Cetratus
in the process. One thing Russell did forget was to get anyone on his flag, so
thanks for small victories.
I went into the tank
and decided, somehow, that trying an assassination on a feated Xerxis with
three transfers in base to base with another model, with a Griffon that did not
have access to Concentrated Power. As I mentioned, I'm good at this game.
So I built up the
Synergy chain to +4, cleared off the flag and got Vyros in B2B with it. The
Wrathful Phoenix charged Tiberion and took out his body… and then I sent the
Griffon in the nice pocket that Russell had left. It flubbed about and failed
to do anything of import, but did serve to lock his Cetrati in place quite
nicely (thanks Bird's Eye!). This was obviously a mistake- I should have
focused on taking out Tiberion, which a Wrathful, Synergy'ed Phoenix can most
suredly do.
I dominated at the
end of the turn, going to 2-0.
Round 4:
Russell was winning
the attrition war, but he didn't really have anything that could easily get to
Vyros and could barely contest with a running Incendiari. So most of his turn
was spent trying to dig out his models, but didn't get very far thanks to some
poor dice rolls and the Griffons' natural toughness. The Phoenix was torn about
thanks to the combined efforts of the Cetrati, Tiberion and the Gladiator,
though. He also got some Arcuarii into B2B with his flag, taking the score to
2-1 at the end of his turn.
My turn I made
another mistake- I should have started putting some damage on the objective,
but for some reason just had the thought that I needed to take it out in one
go. Vyros allocated three to the Aspis with the plan of beat backing out
everything and upkept Synergy. I killed some more of his dudes, contested his
flag and dominated again, taking the score to 4-1. The Aspis was in place to
prevent any charges from his elephants on Vyros and contest the remaining
Cetrati.
Round 5:
Russell was on the
back foot and really needed to get something that would survive to contest. He
finally ground down a Griffon and killed the Aspis to allow the Gladiator to
run into contesting range of the flag.
I knew the game was
pretty much up at this point. Maybe with Synergy + 3 I could do something, but
with only a single Griffon to my name it was pretty much a forlorn hope. I
upkept Synergy, got to +1… and then only got the Gladiator down to half health.
It murdered me in round 6.
After thoughts:
That was a tense,
very close game. If he hadn't been able to take out the Aspis Russell would
have been in a very, very bad place, but he made the right move to get the win.
I was correct to focus on scenario, and I really should have kept that in mind
during the whole game. This is a recurring problem of mine and something that I
really need to work on.
I also should have
taken some pot shots at the objective earlier. Taking that out would have meant
the difference between loss and victory, and with as few guns as this list has
I need to keep it in mind at all times.
Game 4: Ravyn vs
Rahn in
I expected my 4th
game to be against Malachai and Irusk2, but instead pulled John and his
Retribution. He had brought Rahn and Issyria, and we took a while trying to
decide which list to use against each other. His two lists were fairly infantry
spammy, so I eventually decided on Ravyn and he chose the following Rahn list:
Rahn Shyeel
- Phoenix: Bonded (All-Terrain)
- Phoenix
Magister
Magister
Arcanist
Arcanist
Battle Mages
Battle Mages
Min Dawnguard
Sentinels
Min Dawnguard
Sentinels
Min Mage Hunter
Infiltrators + Eiryss, Mage Hunter Commander
After the previous
game I was pretty worn out, and it showed in this game as I'm pretty certain
that I was asleep through at least round
2. I also forgot to take photos.
I won the roll to go
first and deployed my Strike Force in a line across the board with the Hyperion
center, Riflemen on the right and Invictors on the left. He deployed in a
mirror pattern across the center.
Round 1:
I ran my guys up as
it's first turn. I unfortunately ran the Strike Force first, so I couldn't put
Snipe on them and instead put it on the Hyperion.
Running the Strike
force was a mistake as my opponent showed by running his Phoenixes up and
arcing Chain Blast, killing 5 of them. He ran the rest of his forces up.
Round 2:
I bungle my
activations, allocating 4 to the Hyperion and upkeeping Snipe. I for some
reason think that I'll activate Ravyn later to swap Snipe to someone else, but
everything is already in range, so I activate my Hyperion first for no reason
at all. It Critical Consumes a unit of Sentinels and a Magister that were
hiding behind a forest (thanks Eyeless Sight!), puts some damage on the left
Phoenix and fails to hit any Battle Mages whatsoever. Ravyn then activates,
feats, and hides behind the Hyperion. I proceed to kill the Battle Mages on my
right but forget to use Swift Hunter to protect my Mage Hunters, forget to kill
the Arcanist to allow me to disrupt the Phoenix, and even keep my Riflemen
mostly out of feat range. I finish this turn with the Invictors failing to
significantly damage the left Phoenix thanks to terrible rolls.
On his turn he
predictably kills a ton of my army. The left Phoenix combusts and kills most of
my Invictors, the right Phoenix nimbly walks through my army and gets in
position to arc. He feats, but since he's out of range of Ravyn he decides to
just use it to kill as many Invictors as possible.
The rest of the game
quickly runs down to Ravyn + the Hyperion taking on the world. He can't kill
the Hyperion, and Ravyn stays far enough away to avoid getting killed herself.
I delude myself into thinking that scenario is a possibility, but choose to throw
that out the window and just go for the kill on Rahn. I manage to get him down
to 2 boxes left after the Hyperion's activation with only the Houseguard Thane
in range to do anything. He advances, gets the 10 to hit… and rolls 7 on
damage, leaving Rahn at 1. A subsequent assassination attempt after Rahn had
gotten behind a wall also failed, allowing him to win on scenario.
Overall this was a
very fun tournament. Getting to allocate 4 to a 'jack, particularly if it's a
collossal, is a massive, massive thing and makes it a very interesting game.
Mostly what I learned from this tourney is that I need to practice a lot more if I want to compete, but that I'm on
the right track. Keeping scenario always in mind when moving and killing things
needs to be my top priority from now on as it's probably my biggest weakness.
Anyway, hope you
enjoyed, next time a special battle report from the frontlines in Ios...
Nice reports!
ReplyDeleteIt's too bad Imperatus was being so finicky. Berserk with Side Step and Synergy, not to mention a possible 4 Focus, would have been... yeah...
I was actually wonder how eVyros would play with Sentinels and Invictors. It seems to have worked out pretty well, although losing even a couple Griffons took Synergy down really quickly.
Yeah, it would have been beautiful.
ReplyDeleteWith sentinels and Invictors... I'm a bit conflicted. My original thought process was that including them would open up more matchups for me as I now have more attacks to handle infantry. But the lower synergy has really been felt in my matchups as I can't get a Griffon to reliably get to super high power. Imperatus can usually get the job done, but he's only one piece.
For my next couple of games I'm going to be trying out the MOAR GRIFFONZ strategy and see if I can get that to click for me. It's certainly powerful, but also melts my brain a bit so it'll be a while before I'm comfortable with it.
That sounds like a fun time. Anything to make 'jacks better is cool in my book, though a Wrathful Woldguardian with Brad would just be so messed...
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