Grand Slam!

In my last entry I was attempting to finish off a unit of Exemplar Errants in preparation for the Grand Slam tournament held in York on 31^st March 2012.  It was a bit of a struggle, but I finished the unit (as seen below).

Exemplar Errants unit #2 ready to Self Sacrifice on a gaming table near YOU!!

I’ll spend the remainder of this blog entry discussing my chosen armies and a brief synopsis of the games and the tournament itself as well as a few glamour shots of the armies I took!

Grand Slam I – Overview:

*Two events: 35point Steamroller (X5 games) and 15 point Mangled Metal (X4 games).

*Timed turnes: 7 minutes @ 35points and 3 minutes @ 15points.

*Shrinking Killbox artifice (non-standard addition)

*No painting restrictions other than line of sight arcs.

*35point lists follow the standard Steamroller format, 15 points Mangled Metal requires tier list restrictions.

*Details can be found here.

Overall the event was smoothly run by Event Organisers Brett Wilkie and Paul North, timings were quite tight as per the volume of games to be played on the day however this worked just fine and was in fact quite novel playing two events; the Mangled Metal being quite a nice way to finish.  The prize support was really good with some custom trophy’s that fitted the Warmachine steam-punk theme.  The venue was spot on too with well laid out boards and decent terrain.  Lunch was provided and was of a good quality, all in all a bargain price at £15.

Grand Slam I - 35 points Steamroller:

I took two Menoth lists for this event, Severius1 and Kreoss1, lists below:

+5 Grand Scrutator Severius

  7 *Blessing of Vengeance

  8 *Vanquisher

11 Avatar of Menoth

  2 Choir of Menoth (X4)

  4 Temple Flameguard (X6)

  5 Exemplar Errants (X6)

  2 *Exeplar Errants UA

  2 Vassal of Menoth

+5 High Exemplar Kreoss

  8 *Reckoner

  8 *Reckoner

  6 *Redeemer

  2 Choir of Menoth (X4)

  8 Exemplar Errants (X10)

  2 *Exeplar Errants UA

  2 Vassal of Menoth

  2 Vassal of Menoth

  2 Covenant of Menoth

Given the fast pace of the event I needed to take lists I was comfortable with and could keep up with the 7 minute turn pace.  As regular readers know my favourite list is the Sevvy1 list and that was pretty much an auto-include given my knowledge and experience using this list, my only reservation was that Sevvy1 is a backfield caster and the Shrinking Killbox artifice doesn’t suit him!  I chose the Kreoss1 list as he is a bit more of a midfield caster and has a powerful feat with a strong assassination potential.

Below are photographs of the two lists:

Kreoss1 list

Kreoss1 list

Kreoss1 list

Kreoss1 list

Sevvy1 list

Sevvy1 list

Sevvy1 list

Sevvy1 list

Sevvy1 list

A brief synopsis of the 35point Steamroller games:

Game 1 – Alain Watson

Khador; Butcher2

Beast 09

Great Bears

Widowmakers

Widowmaker Marksman

Yuri the Axe

Eiryss2

Kel Blailoch

Fenris

MoW Drakun

Wardog

I took Sevvy1 as I felt my feat would be useful, as well as Ashes to Ashes and the Vanquisher to take out all of the high defence solos/infantry and the Avatar can handle hard to kill targets such as Beast 09 and the Butcher.  I took the first turn and ran far forward to try and get Sevvy1 upfield to avoid the shrinking killbox and get strong board control position.  I chose to avoid the Widowmakers and Kell with my Errants given they would fall as easy prey to the snipers and sent the Vanquisher to deal with them.

Highlights of the game were a couple of well placed Ashes to Ashes which were arced onto my own Temple Flameguard and killed Eiryss2, Wardog, Fenris and Yuri.  The Vanquisher also was a real badass killing the Widowmakers, Kell and the Marksman, then all three Great Bears and finally putting serious hurt on the Butcher, allowing the Blessing to kill the enemy caster off and seize victory!  So off the blocks with a Sevvy1 win!!

Game 2 – John Dale

Menoth; Kreoss1

Reckoner

Reckoner

Choir

Errants (max) + UA

Rhoven & Co.

Rhupert

Errant Seneschal

Vassal

Covenant

This game was going to be interesting as my opponent and I both had exactly the same casters and very few differences on army composition.  I decided I had to choose my Kreoss list as having the book in that list was essential to take in order to mitigate being knocked down and assassinated by the opposing Kreoss army.  My opponent thought the same thing and we both chose Kreoss as our casters so a mirror-match ensued.  I won’t go into details on this game but suffice to say we each traded Errants and Reckoner shots whilst trying to keep our books alive and calling ‘no knock-down’.  In hind sight John had the edge over my list given his Errants had hunter from the Seneschal and tough from Rhupert.   His two additional weapon master honour guard were more useful than my Redeemer also.  Eventually I lost the game after a few failed attempts to even the score with a charging Kreoss and Reckoner, but the dice weren’t with me and I helped John on his way to win the tournament eventually!  A great game, but like we both said might have been better if we didn’t have such similar armies; still I learnt a lot from the experience and am eager to try out some new ideas as a result.

Game 3 – Craig Johnson

Trollbloods; Madrack1

Mulg

Axer

Trollkin Fennblades (min)

Pyg Burrowers (max)

Trollkin Champions (min)

Krielstone Bearer and Stone Scribers (min)

Solo or UA (not sure)

*NB not quite sure on this list exactly*

I’m not overly familiar with Trollbloods, only having played them a handful of times so  I decided to choose Sevvy1 to take on these as the Avatar could take on any really tough troll heavies and for some reason I thought the trolls had some access to anti-knockdown as well as their casters being difficult to assassinate.  The game went quite well highlights included the Pyg Burrowers doing a multi-engagement and failing their terror test when engaging the Avatar as well as the Vanquisher setting several Champions and Madrack alight on the first turn!  I managed to score a control point as well as kill the Axer, Pyg Burrowers and several Fennblades; the continuous fire took out a few points of damage on the Champions and Madrack but was never that dangerous given each model has multi-wounds and lots of armour.  One highlight of the match was seeing Mulg fail an assassination attempt on Madrack’s feat turn – he was attempting to overtake when he destroyed an Errant, however the Errant’s self sacrifice ability and ultimately the Blessing’s repulsor shield thwarted the attempt.  The game was fairly even up until this point, with perhaps myself having the edge on attrition, however I think fatigue was taking its toll by now and I made the first of what would be a series of almighty cock-ups!  For some reason I thought the Avatar could charge Madrack from where he was (at least 3” deep into terrain), so it was never going to happen.  I ended up charging Sevvy1 into a Fennblade to free up the Avatar’s charge lane and spent all my focus killing it – then realising I couldn’t charge.  No idea why I made that mistake, but I paid for it the next turn as Sevvy1 was assassinated via Madrack’s thrown axe.  Ah well, I’ll learn to engage my brain in the future!

Game 4 – Marc Williams

Menoth; Kreoss1

Reckoner

Reckoner

Choir

Errants + UA (max)

Eiryss2

Rhupert

Wracks

X2 Vassal

Covenant

So another mirror match…  Basically Marc and I did the same John and I did in game 2; simply having to choose the Kreoss1 list was the only choice.  The game started well and despite my forces not having tough Errants and Eiryss to sniper I ended up winning the attrition battle between the two units of Errants, though this wasn’t really anything to crow about particularly as I was just a few guys up, but the game would be about attrition given the nature of both sides almost identical army composition.  On my turn two I made my second almighty blunder of the tournament and completely forgot to activate the Covenant and call ‘no knock-downs’…  Marc, asked me to clarify that I had indeed forgot, to which I replied “er….yes”, to be honest if I’d asked him I’m sure he would have let me call my extension and activate the book, but I chose to accept my mistake and my Kreoss1 subsequently died in about 30 seconds flat – pop and drop!

We recorded the result as a win to Marc and then played on for a bit of fun and had quite a relaxing game where we could both just throw a few things forward for a laugh and see what our toys could do!

Game 5 – Andrew Kenny

Mercs; Gorten

Driller

Blaster

Basher (Marshalled)

Forge Guard (max)

Gun Corps (max) + UA

Ogryn Bokur

Lord Rockbottom

Thor Steinhammer

Andrew, or ‘Kenny’ as he likes to be known is a semi-regular down at the Hull Warmachine club and I’ve known him for a while and had a few games in the past, though I’d never played his or any other Rhulic force before so it was going to be interesting!  I chose Kreoss1 as my warcaster because he’d had two bad match-ups and I wanted to see if he could do well in a better setting.  I won first turn and hauled ass upfield, knowing Kenny would try and ‘Landslide’ Kreoss1 8” backwards and out of the shrinking Killbox under Gorten’s feat turn.  Errants quickly got in a decent position ready for the high armour dwarven advance.  Kenny advanced his army but he also cast Solid Ground, a spell that meant ‘no knockdown’ for models within his casters control range – darn, hadn’t seen that coming!  During my next turn the Reckoners made short work of the Driller jack and so I was a heavy up as well as putting some hurt on the other jacks.  Kenny hit back killing about half the Errants, but my jacks were unscathed, however I noticed something during his maintenance phase; Kenny upkept Solid Ground, and I suddenly realised I had a way of getting my feat to work!  In my next turn I used Kreoss1 to Purify and remove Gorten’s defensive Solid Ground, then feated knocking down most of the Dwarf army.  Both Reckoners and the Redeemer fired into the enemy warcaster setting him on fire as well as dropping him down to just one wound – not quite a victory but within a whisker never-the-less!

Kenny, sweating by now, rolled to see if the fire expired, it didn’t and I rolled exactly Gorten’s armour value so he was still in it!!  Kenny tried a last ditch attempt to win; charging his own jack and feating, choosing to push Kreoss1 et al back 8” towards my board edge – attempting to send him into a position where the shrinking kill-box would catch Kreoss1 outside this zone.  There was a bit of a problem here as Kenny kept forgetting his models were knocked down and as such he had to either forfeit either his movement or action and therefore couldn’t charge, he didn’t burn any focus in his maintenance phase to do so with his caster or jacks…  I let him off with his mistake and in honesty it didn’t really make that much difference in the end.  Kenny did try and push Kreoss1 back, but I had seen it coming and placed Kreoss1 in front of my objective, Kenny thought that Kreoss1 could be moved through the objective, through and I knew it counted as a structure, so could not.  In the end Brett (EO) intervened and I was ruled as correct so Kenny chose a different board edge to ‘Landslide’ my models 8” towards and ultimately Kreoss1 remained in the Killbox.  During my next turn I simply loaded up my jacks with focus and Gorten understandably died to the first shot, BLAM!!  Game to me!

Concluding thoughts:

I really enjoyed the Steamroller event and felt I played quite well, aside from the two almighty clangers I dropped allowing my opponents an easy win.  I played some really good opponents, one of which won the tournament in the end, and my two victories were certainly hard fought.  I came 20^th out of 32 in the end which was OK considering the time pressures I was under coupled with a few medical issues I currently enduring.

The Shrinking Killbox was a cool twist and added an interesting dimension that didn’t actually make any scenario overly complicated.  I even managed to Keep my backfield caster in this zone!

After playing the two Kreoss armies I realised that my own list isn’t perhaps as optimised as it could have been, the Redeemer being quite expensive and not really earning its place.  The Piper was used to make the enemy Errants tough and this was a huge advantage, so I think I’ll try this out and perhaps Rhoven and Co. in its place, though Ayiana and Holt might slot nicely into this spot too.  I’m not sold on the Errant Seneschal, though Hunter could be a game winner in certain circumstances.

Grand Slam I - 15 points Mangled Metal:

I took two Khador lists for this event, Sorscha2 and Karchev, lists below:

+6 Forward Kommander Sorscha

 11 *Beast 09 (bonded)

 10 *Spriggan

+5 Karchev the Terrible

 13 *Behemoth)

   7 *Juggernought

Below are a couple of shots of the two Khador lists I took:

Sorscha2 list

Karchev list

Game 1 – Phil Cox

Minions; Lord Carver

Warhog

Warhog

Gunboar

This game was really fast and furious, Big B got some early hits in with some boosted bombard shots on the Gunboar causing some big damage, the Gunboar then slammed Karchev and I couldn’t quite get a powerslide off into Carver or the Warhogs given the proximity of the Gunboar.  Instead I chose to advance the Juggernaught and kill the Gunboar and take the Warhog’s reprisal.  Carver feated and the Hogs came in, killing the Jugger and seriously hurting Karchev.  In my next turn I made my next stupid major mistake of the day, it started well with Karchev casting Unearthly Rage and loading up the Behemoth, the first hog died, then the second got to within 3 health boxes and a hair’s bredth of its life, but lived.  The following turn Carver did a fully boosted ranged attack and killed Karchev and I lost.  However my mistake was thinking that Behemoth was STR10, when in fact he is STR12, so would have killed the last Warhog and won should I have been paying attention – again fatigue caused a brain fart, but he-ho!  Daft thing was Phil went on to win the tournament, at least I helped him on his way; only myself to blame TBH!!

Game 2 – Phil Gedge

Cygnar; Seige

X2 Defender

Another fast paced adrenaline rush as Karchev Towed Big B and the Jugger up-field as fast as possible.  I kept a toe in a wood to provide a bit of extra defence from the Defenders, though I suspected Seige was out of feat range.  I took a bit of sporadic damage on Karchev, but remained relatively unscathed.  The next turn Karchev upkept Tow and trampled forwards, cast Unearthly Rage and promptly feated.  The Jugger advanced and smashed one defender, then Big B destroyed the other and it was game to me quite quickly.

Game 3 – Conrad Betts

Cygnar; Nemo1

Thunderhead

Centurion

Another Cygnar warcaster and again I chose Karchev, same as before I went first and Towed the jacks along with Karchev.  I took some damage from the Thunderhead and then Nemo’s feat disrupted Big B, though the Jugger was OK.  I sent Karchev into combat the next turn and hurt the Centurion badly, then Big B took the Thunderhead down to within a couple of boxes of scrap metal, but not quite dead.  I ran out of time before the Jugger could finish the Centurion, but suffice to say both jacks were seriously damaged with no cortexes or melee weapons capable of doing that much damage.  Conrad sent Nemo into Karchev, but didn’t roll very well and Karchev took some pain, but lived – his body system smashed, so I was unable to allocate focus to my jacks.  In my turn I cast Unearthly Rage and Karchev finished Nemo off himself, as expected – so another win!

Game 3 – Phil Shaw

Cryx; Skarre1

X3 Stalker

Leviathan

I had to choose Sorscha2 for this game as both lists must be played.  Again I went first, though should have chosen the other board edge given the position of a liner feature that eventually became a problem.  Phil Shaw is a really good player and I knew I was up against the ropes on this one, but had two wins under my belt already so was quite happy at this point.  The Stalkers would be a problem as they ignore overboosted powerfields and spells that add to armour or defence, so Sorscha2 was likely to get assassinated!!

I had an opportunity to win the game if Beast could kill the Leviathan and a Stalker who were the only enemy models in the mosh pit and one control point is all that is required to win, they were both behind the linear feature and as such would benefit from +2 defence.  Beast took a full four focus and Sorscha2 feated (double damage) and cast Boundless Charge giving Beast the best possible chance.  My first hit was a critical and the Leviathan was frozen, the thresher attack missed the Stalker who was DEF18, jeez!  Then Beast killed the Leviathan, but missed the Stalker on his last attack.  I subsequently took a rear charge on Sorscha2 from the other two Stalkers, the Spriggan was positioned to get freestrikes on these and defend Sorscha2 but was unable to hit – Sorscha2 quickly died to the first Stalker (also benefiting from Skarre1’s feat (+5 STR)).  Then I realised I had dropped another clanger, I forgot that all of Beast 09’s damage output was doubled under the feat and had just been doing normal damage, meaning I could have killed the Leviathan earlier and bought + boosted more attacks on the Stalker.  It would have all been down to the dice, as I could have easily missed the attacks, but never-the-less another almighty error on my part.  Still it was a really good game and a well deserved win to Phil.   I was absolutely knackered by this point and probably couldn’t tell you my own name – LOL!!

Concluding thoughts:

I really enjoyed the Mangled Metal event and felt I played well, but again a couple of costly mistakes from just being forgetful and not thinking straight.  The Mangled Metal was a bit of fun and it was great to get the Khador out again, especially in a competitive setting – awesome!  In the final standings I came 14^th out of 26.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my ramblings and the glamour shots, any comments please drop me a message, thanks for reading. :-)