Tournament Report: Steamroller with Extra Bonds

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...