Leeds Domination Tournament write up

Introduction

In my last entry I discussed the prep for the Leeds Domination event to be held last Sunday.  I’d managed to get a place at the last minute and join fellow Hull Warmachine club members Luke, Dave and Mehmet.  We travelled down as a group and got there a little earlier than perhaps we needed, circa 10am, though the event first round was supposed to start at 11am and we were to meet in Leeds Travelling Man at 10:30 – unfortunately when we got there the shop was closed and no other wargamers were to be seen…

After a hearty bacon butty breakfast the Hull guys tried not to look too geeky loitering outside Travelling Man, but then the sky went dark and it began to rain, I was glad to be wearing shorts and a t-shirt…

Eventually the shop opened and we were ushered to the gaming venue a street or two away.  The boards were well set out with a variety of Warmachine friendly terrain and the gaming space wasn’t too overcrowded for the fourteen players (there were a couple of drop outs at the last minute).

The Guys; Lookin' Kool! ;-)

Below is a brief synopsis of my four games and my version of the Menite Northern Crusade:

Game 1

Opponent: Tony Moore

Army: Legion of Everblight, Vayl2 (tier 4)

Scenario: Outfight, Outflank, Outlast (no reinforcements)

I’d heard of Tony Moore, perhaps from posts on TWF as well as mentions in Rankings HQ and other big events, such as the UK Masters.  I knew he was a good player and I’d be up against it from the off.  Tony had two lists, Vayl2 and Saeryn, I felt Kreoss1 would be best here as if I faced Saeryn I could shoot with my heavy jacks and have a get-out counter feat and shoot again plus Kreoss could do well against Vayl2 also.

Highlights of the game were some cat and mouse manoeuvring from both of us, but from my point of view gaining the upper hand in attrition and control points early on.  I managed to kill most of Tony’s army without loosing too much myself, my heavies were all unscathed and Tony was down to just an almost dead Ravagore, Vayl2 almost dead, a Helion Sorceress half dead and a Shepherd.  I managed to set Vayl on fire and had a good go at killing her with my jacks, but not quite enough to burn through all her transfers.

The game had a very odd conclusion as ‘dice down’ was called just after Tony had finished moving his last piece into the left hand scoring zone (which contested the zone) and had just managed to throw my heavy jack out of the other zone giving him a control point and levelling us on the ‘dice down’.  Therefore it went to tertiary conditions, which were what the point values were of surviving models within the scoring zones.  Luckily for Tony all of his models were in the zones and most of mine not, despite me having lots more points left alive, so he won by just 2 army points!  Tony said he felt bad to win that way, but I was gracious and congratulated him on the win, as ‘them’s the rules’!  Fair play to him, though it did feel like snatching defeat from the jaws of victory!

Result: Loss

Control points:1

Army points: 49 (this was recorded wrong on the final standings for some reason)

Game 2

Opponent: Alain Watson

Army: Legion of Everblight, Saeryn

Scenario: Diversion

I’d played Alain before at the York Grand Slam tournament earlier in the year; he was a really pleasant chap and a pleasure to play against so I was looking forwards to the game.  Similarly to the last game Alain had Saeryn in his two lists and I opted to go with Kreoss again, for the same tactical reasons.

This time I’d get to see whether my idea for fighting Saeryn was optimised, but felt that my accurate Reckoners could hurt the fragile Legion beasts which have high defence, but low armour.

Highlights of the game were Alain making a mistake, which was exposed after the fact, by not feating sooner rather than later.  I basically got to charge three of his four heavy beasts with three of mine, plus my infantry.  I killed all three and some support solos giving me a huge advantage that Alain couldn’t really come back from.  Alain fought on however killing quite a bit of my infantry, but not my heavies.  He feated this time and sent his remaining Angelius running (well flying) next to Kreoss, an interesting gambit which posed a serious threat – a beast I can’t hurt stood next to my warcaster…

Kreoss defended himself well by casting Defender’s Ward on himself and camping the rest of the focus (no point allocating to the jacks considering they couldn’t attack the Legion beast or Saeryn).  I took the freestrike, which missed, and positioned my models to bog down the Angelius as well as Saeryn and keep Kreoss safe as he heroically retreated!

The following turn saw my forces annihilate the remaining Legion forces to the last man (woman) and a win on caster kill.  We discussed the game afterwards and I suggested that Alain should have feated a turn earlier to avoid the Menite warjack charge, which was devastating to his army.

Result: Win

Control points:0

Army points: 60

Game 3

Opponent: Mehmet

Army: Cryx, Deneghra1

Scenario: Gauntlet

Getting drawn against another Hull Warmachine player was probably inevitable given there were four of us and only fourteen players, but I’ve only played Mehmet a handful of times so it would be good to get a game in.  I chose to use my Severius list as I needed to use it at least once and didn’t want to be locked into it for the final round if it would be a bad match up.  Mehmet also only had one list which made this decision easier.

Having had a dabble with Deneghrah1 just prior to the ETC I knew what Mehmet’s list did and I positioned my forces to deal with Bane/Bile Thralls and assorted solos/jacks.  I was concerned a little about the Wraith Engine as I wasn’t sure how it worked exactly and kept the Avatar central to deal with it in melee if needs be as it had a magical weapon should it go incorporeal and threaten Sevvy.

Highlights of the game (for me) were the Vanquisher burning lots of Bane Thralls with some well placed shooting and the Errants killing the Wraith Engine with numerous high weapon master charge dice rolls.  They also prevented the Wraith Engine collecting souls with their Self Sacrifice ability.  The Blessing of Vengeance lent a hand on my right flank with a well placed charge into Mehmets arc node and Wraith Engine.  The Avatar eventually got a bead on Deneghra and she died to its mighty P&S 22 Sword, going in at MAT11 and 3D6 to hit and damage (at +8) was just plain rude!

Result: Win

Control points: 0

Army points: 42

Game 4

Opponent: Dave Forster

Army: Khador, Vlad3 (yep Legendary Vlad)!

Scenario: Destruction

Getting drawn against yet another Hull Warmachine player was a shame at this point as we were on a fairly high standing with a possible podium finish for one of us…

Dave is a good mate and regular opponent of mine so it would be a great game and Dave chose Legendary Vlad as his warcaster and I chose Kreoss, though the Avatar and Blessing would have been useful too.  I went with Kreoss because his feat would be stronger against the high defence infantry and the Reckoners could shoot the objectives from afar.  I was really thrilled to play against a new legendary warcaster, though I wasn’t sure exactly how he worked and would need to be sharp on understanding how Dave’s forces could increase their speed and angles under the feat and spell Dash.

Highlights of this game were initially Dave making a couple of slight misjudgements in distance which allowed me to get the upper hand quite quickly.  Dave lost Eiryss2 and Fenris early on and this paved the way for one of my Reckoners to advance on, and destroy Dave’s objective, then go after the second.  My feat was also quite devastating and it was used to kill Eiryss2, all the Kayazy and a Uluhan.  Dave had unfortunately made another slight mistake and forgot to cast the legendary Vlad version of the spell Signs & Portents spell on his Uluhans when they charged my TFG unit which they desperately needed to improve their chances of hitting.  In preparation for this inevitable charge I had mini-feated the TFG (+4 ARM) and given them Defender’s Ward and Tough from Rhupert, making it very hard to hit and kill them on a charge (DEF 17, ARM 19).  They were basically defending my own objective.

Dave pressed hard on my objective with his Spriggans and Uluhans under his own feat, but my TFG and Reckoner held the line, eventually destroying the attacking force before they had chance to complete their mission.  One Spriggan seemed to live through every attack I could muster, its shield saving it and being the last system to expire – we had a right good laugh every round with this stubborn Spriggan!!

‘Dice down’ was eventually called before I could destroy the last objective, though I had taken a few damage boxes off it, as had Dave on my first objective, so the game was a win to me on control points (1-0) – no tertiary conditions this time!

Result: Win

Control points:1

Army points: 53

Event summary

I felt that the event was well organized and that prize support was good, though it was a shame only Best-In-Faction coins were available for Hordes players, though this was clearly stated.  I enjoyed all of my games and felt all of my opponents were proper sports.  I was delighted to finish 2^nd overall, which was quite contested due to several players finishing on three wins.  The sort mechanism was strength of schedule, which is a mathematical value based on how well your opponents did and mine was higher, clearly I must have had a harder tournament than my rivals!!  Tony Moore, to whom I lost to in the first game, won the event overall with four wins and as I came within a hairs breadth of winning that game I felt I had given a good account of myself, it was just a shame I had to achieve second by beating my friends; sorry Dave and Mehmet.  :-(

I seemed to score fairly low on Control Points, possibly due to getting a caster kill and focusing on that rather than the scenario.  But the shocking thing more than anything was breaking 200AP’s in four rounds, averaging killing over 50 points of models in every game I played!

Thanks for reading!

Leeds Domination Tournament

Leeds Domination Tournament
Following on from my last entry the tournament theme is running strong at the moment.  I managed to get into the Leeds Domination Tournament, a small 16 player event being held this Sunday (29/07/2012).  Details for the event can be seen here, but suffice to say it is Hordes orientated, though Warmachine armies are permitted - albeit no 'best in-faction' Privateer Press coins will be available to Warmachine players.

I contemplated taking my Skorne, but at 50 points and timed turns I felt there would be too much time pressure and I am very out of practice and most likely wouldn't enjoy the event as a result.  Therefore I decided to go with what I know and chose Menoth (what a surprise I hear you say)!  I also feel more comfortable fielding a fully painted army, possibly a throw back from my 40K days.

Another shocker here; I chose my Kreoss1 list as my main 50 point list, it is tried and tested, fully painted and I know I can play it in 10 min timed turns.  The list was balanced for a one list environment, meaning it can deal with most things, so a second list to complement it would be difficult to build.  I also had little time to paint anything so I was fairly confined to my choices.  One thing to note is the character restrictions of Steamroller 2012, where you can not duplicate any unique model(s).

Two List Steamroller for the Menoth
I decided to take Sevvy1 as my second list and tried to build another balanced list and settled on the following:

Grand Scrutator Severius
*Blessing of Vengeance
*Vanquisher
Avatar
Choir (min)
Errants (max) + UA
TFG (max) + UA
Eiryss2
Vassal
Errant Seneschal
Gorman
Wracks

All of it is painted barring the Errant Seneschal, so quite do-able for the event.  I also had to submit my list within a short period of being offered the place - so very little thinking time (my lunch hour basically)!!

I've got crowd clearance as well as being able to crack armour.  Eiryss2 is in there to remove upkeeps and Gorman can make clouds to help hide Sevvy as well as lob blind/rust/acid grenades as the game progress.  I also felt that with Eye of Menoth the Errants ranged game would improve and the addition of the Errant Seneschal, providing Hunter, would further augment this.

Playtesting of the list: on first thought the list is OK, but not as good as the Kreoss1 list.  I do like playing Sevvy however, so it should be great fun to get those cheeky Ashes to Ashes spells off. :-)

Moving forwards I'm seriously considering building a Harbinger list to complement the Kreoss list and am looking at units like the Mercenary Horgenhold Forgeguard with Ranking Officer and perhaps the Holy Zealots, solos such as Nicia, the Heirophant and Paladins are of interest too.  Plus it will give me some painting objectives.

Errant Seneschal Painting
It was painted as per the standard technique I've discussed throughout this blog, however I took more time considering he is a solo and added some black ink lining to make certain armour plates and surfaces stand out and make these joins more crisp.  I'm quite happy with the result, below are photos of the completed Seneschal.

Errant Seneschal front view

Errant Seneschal side view

Errant Seneschal front view

Errant Seneschal close-up front view

ETC 2012 The Aftermath

Well the ETC 2012 for Warmachine and Hordes took place last weekend as I said in the previous entry and I thought I’d write up a few notes on the event.  I didn’t take any photos as I was using my phone for its chess clock app and needed every drop of power so the images shown below are poached from other sources ;-)

Firstly I’d like to expand on my concluding comments from the last entry regarding my concerns of how the logistics for the event were going to be overcome.  On the whole my concerns were unfounded and the event ran with relatively few hick-ups, something I am very happy to state.  If anybody is really interested on what the community thought the feedback forum can be viewed here.

ETC 2012 a tale of team: Has anyone Seen My Pair?

Day 1

After doing a days work team member Andy McBirnie and myself drove down to Mansfield, arriving around 7:30pm with a view to meeting fellow team mates Austin Pickles and Andy Garrard as well as our Finish opponents for a showdown at circa 8pm.

The first round was probably a bit of a bone of contention as far as event organisation was concerned, with teams starting at all sorts of odd times and people hustling and bustling through the venue as well as people playing casual games; however we set-up without incident and were started off by a ref and it was fine for us.

Perhaps our first game could be described as a ‘Baptism by Fire’ as the Fins were all seasoned tournament veterans and had toured Europe playing the game, so they were a bit good!!!!

Game 1

I was drawn against a really nice bloke who spoke perfect English and had perhaps the nastiest Cryx Terminus list I’ve ever seen.  He had me on the ropes from turn one, but I held my composure and played to the best of my ability denying him a caster-kill opportunity throughout the game and making tactical sacrifices to stay in the game with regards to scenario.  I felt that I gave a really good account of myself regards game-play and held out to the bitter end without giving up.  I eventually lost via ‘time out’, though my opponent had more Control Points regardless!

Highlights of this round would be Terminus gathering enough souls on his feat turn to reach ARM 37!!!!  Band Lord Tartarus being set on fire and making no less than 8 tough rolls (jeez).

The team took a beating in the opening round with three of us loosing and just one win.  My opponent said he’d not lost in the last eleven international matches, which is damned impressive so that made me feel better!  Andy McB ended one of the Fins unbeaten international records, which stood at about sixteen – so well done Andy!

Team: Anyone Seen My Pair? Vs Team: Finland on Friday night

 Day 2

I think after the beating on Friday night the team’s morale was probably a bit low, however we were eager to make our mark and were drawn against a Dutch team; I was thinking it had to be another ‘kick-ass’ foreign team and we were on for another hiding…

Game 2

My opponent was another really nice chap who spoke fluent English and was playing Trollbloods; Jarl Skuld.  I felt more in control this game and went to work with the same focus and determination I had on the Friday.  I played initially for a scenario victory as Jarl was staying well back and had a Fellcaller who could partially reverse my knockdown feat.  In the end I played the attrition game and killed lots of expensive multi-wound Troll units and solos and began to threaten a win on tertiary conditions as I was controlling my zone full and the objective in the centre as well as being deep into my opponents zone.  I did get the opportunity for a caster kill and went for it, Jarl was killed with a couple of Reckoner shots and a Vanquisher to the face after Kreoss feated, so a win for me!

Highlights of this game were probably the Errants who just refused to die holding up the entire Troll line, just one managed to hold off a full unit of Tuffalo cavalry as it was in the way and kept on passing tough rolls or being missed – unbelievable!

The rest of the team obviously felt empowered to emulate my victory we won 3-1, our overall standing being 4-4.

Game 3

After lunch we played our third game, again against a foreign team, some Belgians this time.  Again my opponent was a great chap who spoke excellent English.  He had a Menoth list led by Amon Ad Raza and five assorted light jacks as well as one heavy.  I took the first turn as my opponent chose the board edge.  Possibly a mistake on his part as we had a radial deployment which ultimately denied his table edge advantage and I went first…

I played well in this game once again lulling my opponent into a trap which I sprung to kill his Errants and give me the initiative.  I also played well attritionally killing his heavy quickly meaning mine could stand against his lights with the Errants weapon master ability to lend a hand.  In the end I killed almost all of the infantry and all but two jacks for the loss of virtually nothing.  Victory came when my opponent ran out of time, though I had flooded the scoring zone with my models and tertiary victory conditions would have won me the game.

Highlights were baiting the enemy Errants into a bad position and killing them and my heavies smashing their way through a swathe of enemy lights, wreck markers created loads of difficult ground as a result.  I also sent a fully boosted Vanquisher shot at Amon in an assassination attempt, but missed and scattered miles away (boo)!

The rest of the team got stuck in too this round and we won again 3-1; it felt like we had hit the ground running on day two so far with the team being 7-5 at the half way point.

After a short break the draw was up and again we faced a foreign team, who all spoke a weird kind of English – the Geordies!!!

In this round the Geordies used their team feat, allowing them to swap two pairings for a more favourable match up.  I was one of the feated players and was drawn against another Menoth player, basically because he had The Book (Covenant of Menoth) which would deny my feat somewhat.

Game 4

Again another really nice chap, who was using Grand Scrutator Severius (Prime), a caster I am very familiar with as well as his list composition.  I was surprised that he didn’t have an arc node, but rather two light warjacks (Repenters).

The game was a test of Menite skill to a certain extent as we had numerous mirrored units.  I made the exact same manoeuvre as in the previous game to bait the enemy Errants out of their protective wood and feated them, followed by setting them on fire, insurance basically if they didn’t die to the original hit.  This effectively gave me the whole left flank and a safe harbour for Kreoss.

I eventually won the game by killing Severius, he was on fire, had no focus, had taken half wounds already and then took a charge off a battled up, fully loaded Reckoner and I had just Purified his Defenders Ward off so my opponent just held out his had to admit defeat!

Highlights of the game included my opponent thinking Saxon Orrik could give a jack pathfinder, something I had to get the cards out to prove who was right (all in good spirits from us both I might add).  This left his Avatar and Reckoner a bit stuck behind a wall.  Rhoven heroically gave a Reckoner Menoth’s Sight and it assaulted Eiryss2, but failed it’s ‘to hit’ roll so Rhoven dispatched the Elven hooker himself.

The team also won this round 3-1 which uplifted our spirits from the previous day to much higher heights!

So after day 2 the team was now 10-6 and I was personally 3-1.  Andy McB was also undefeated at this point with an impressive 4-0 win record.

A table O' Stormwalls!

Day 3

After four gruelling matches the team discovered we had drawn team ‘Epic Flail’, led by Brett Wilkie (UK’s #1 ranked player) and we knew they all had a Cygnar army which included the brand new Colossal warjack: Stormwall.  Too be honest we all felt that we couldn’t cope with the Stormwall with our lists and knew we would really struggle.  Epic Flail are a superb group of players too so we would be on the ropes from the off… 

Game 5

Just prior to this game starting the ‘Best Army’ nominations were announced and both us and Epic Flail were nominated, which was a real feather in the cap for both British teams.

We popped our team feat this round, as did Epic Flail and as we’d already been feated upon we could change any match-ups Epic Flail made so it cancelled out and I was drawn against Brett, we’ve played many times and I’ve always lost, but always had a fantastic game.

Brett fielded Haley2, perhaps Cygnar’s most feared warcaster and Brett played like a machine without making mistakes and I was up against the wall and on the defensive.  Brett eventually won the game on scenario, but I played my heart out and inflicted loads of damage on his forces.

Highlights of the match were Brett making a rare mistake and not understanding the scenario scoring conditions allowing me some opportunities to hit back hard.  Perhaps the highlight of the match was Kreoss finding his pair and charging the Stormwall personally and in doing so Dispelling the Arcane Shield spell ready for a brace of battled up Reckoners to charge…  The Reckoners' hit the enemy Colossal as hard as they could dropping the machine to just four health and setting it on fire…  Then the Errants valiantly charged and polished it off – timmmmmmber!!!  The Errants got unit of the match for holding off the Stormwall and clogging its placement to hit my warjacks and Kreoss.  Another funny highlight was the Piper charging Eiryss2 and slaying her – he has killed loads of important enemy solos and bods down to my lucky 'to hit' dice – he he!

Amazingly we drew this round with the Flail boys, but won it on secondary conditions, so another team win with the team standing at 12-8.

Game 6

The sixth and final match up was against a group from the London area, though I think they were all of German origin, so another foreign match up.

Our team was feated on again and I ended up being drawn against another Menoth player, most likely because he had The Book, which as per game 4 would nullify my feat to a certain extent.  My opponent was using the Harbinger and feated on his turn one locking my army down somewhat.  This match up again came down to knowledge of the game and the ins and outs of how Menoth work and I again won my in-faction battle.

Highlights of the match included my opponent making a fatal error in underestimating Errant survival preventing his Avatar from charging my Reckoner (my Errants refused to die, or I Self Sacrificed making sure there was no charge lane) then succumbing to my Reckoner.  During the game I managed to set Harbinger on fire at least twice and she eventually died to a continual barrage of Reckoner and Vanquisher shots, despite camping her FOCUS up to ARM 24!  I think I killed almost every model on the board without taking much more than the loss of half the Errants.  Perhaps the hariest moment of the match, for me, was missing Nicia twice, needing sevens on 3D6, then she charged Kreoss and dealt him 12 damage – ouch!  The bint died the next time however as Kreoss thought it best to feat on her!!!

Unbelievably the team won again, 3-1 making it five wins and one loss overall with a 15-9 win/loss record.  I personally went 4-2 which was above my personal goal target of going 3-3.

Final Standings

Winning the sixth match was fantastic and we felt we had a good shot at a podium finish and we’d been nominated for ‘best army’ too so the team was doing great and we were all knackered but on a real high, just enough time to get a refreshing drink and pack up prior to the awards ceremony at 5pm.

During the final awards ceremony we were delighted to come THIRD and win a set of nice trophies a piece – AWESOME!!  The answer to Has Anyone Seen My Pair? was definitely answered!!!

Hordes & Warmachine ETC 2012 THIRD PLACED TEAM trophy

Pre ETC rumblings

So it’s the big event this coming Friday (06/07/2012), I’ve practiced my list countless times, so much so that I’m looking forward to playing something different once the tournament has been and gone!

Painting is now all done with the last few Choir members being completed a few days ago.  As noted previously painting has been very hard this past year, but I’m glad to field a fully painted list and hopefully pull my weight when considering the team for painting scores etc.

Below are a few snaps of the second Choir:

Choir II front view

Choir II rear view

Choir II close-up view

As this blog often focuses on painting I’ll add a few comments on this unit; it was painted very similarly to the first unit, but differentiated by a few subtle colour changes.  Perhaps the biggest difference was the parchment scrolls the Choir hold out on display.  I painted these with the bone colour palette of P3 Menoth White Base and P3 Menoth White Highlight.  Though the style was different between the cream coloured clothing and the parchment they both looked very similar from a distance due to the same base and highlight colours and was something I wasn’t happy with at all.  Therefore I applied two thinned washes of GW Gryphonne Sepia to tint the colour of the parchment whilst keeping the paint style.  This immediately made the model look ten times better and a very simple technique.  Later details were applied to the parchment which further enhanced the effect.

Gaming has gone well for the Kreoss list, as noted above I’ve played loads of games with the list and thinking about it as I type I’ve barely lost in the past 10 or so games so I’m about as confident with it as I can be.  I realise that I’ve added the ‘kiss of death’ with that last statement and will undoubtedly loose all my games at the ETC to balance out the wins – D’oh!!!

Really looking forward to the tournament, though readers who keep track of the current Warmachine and Hordes events will know the ETC has been mired with last minute pitfalls and problems associated with the venue at Maelstrom games.  It appears that there will be an unprecedented number of gamers at the event and they’re converting their bar area to a gaming room as well as hiring a large marquee for gaming in the car park – how the logistics will work is beyond me as well as the nightmare of health and safety with so many people crowding the site!

I’m really wishing the event is going to be a success and I enjoy it as much as I’m hoping, lets hope the issues surrounding it don’t prove to overshadow the event…