Golden Troll Open 2011, the exploits of Sevvy Part III

Closing thoughts and conclusions

'Golden Troll was everything I expected and more', to sum it up in a single sentence.  I really enjoyed all of my games and all four of my opponents were sporting and pleasant guys.  The whole thing was relaxed and didn’t feel hyper competitive in the least, something I had become very tired of during some of my latter 40K tournament experiences.  I felt the T.O. JT-Y did a superb job and I expected as much having been to Toy Soldier events hosted by him over the past few years.

Regarding my personal performance, I posted up that I was aiming to achieve a single win, which was a reasonable objective given my relatively low Warmachine and Hordes tournament experience plus the afore mentioned high calibre of players attending the event.  Winning three games was far more than I could possibly have hoped and as a result I placed a respectable 6^th in the event.

Obviously I was really pleased with this performance, though in fairness to my opponents most games could have gone the other way, the eSevvy game against the Gators was a horrible match up for my opponent, but he kept on trying and if he’d passed the last tough roll I could have lost quite easily the next turn, similarly in the last game I had very little time to achieve a victory and made it just before ‘dice down’.

My fellow wargamers from Hull Warmachine and York etc all had a great time too and I think my favourite bit of the event was sharing a pub meal together with them after the event, re-telling our glorious victories and horrible defeats over some good grub and a pint!  To be honest the social aspect of this hobby is what makes it so special in my opinion.

Some photos of the armies on display over the lunch break:

Some concluding thoughts on my army choices for those interested in my thoughts on Menites at war:

The Sevvy’s are probably my favourite warcasters, hence my reason for choosing them.  The prime list was really a jack of all trades as it could deal with infantry exceedingly well with the arced Ashes to Ashes and the Vanquisher’s double Flame Belcher shots.  The list had the Avatar who under Eye of Menoth and Hymn of Battle hits so hard it isn’t funny, game two he killed three Circle beasts in one turn.  I do find this list more fun to play and I seemed to gravitate to it every time.  The epic list did a stirling job during the Barnabas game (3) and was my scenario list.  I did find that the Reckoner’s just couldn’t hit quite hard enough to finish an opposing heavy, however this can be overcome by adding assistance from other melee sources such as charging Errants, or the Blessing of Vengeance.  I don’t think on reflection I’d change my lists as they’ve worked well against what ever they’ve faced during play testing and the event itself.

The Menite army is quite attritional as a faction and the Sevvy’s are attrition casters on top of that, meaning they don’t favour quick assassination games.  If I’m honest I have an attrition play style too so they’re suited to me really well!

Thanks for reading

Golden Troll Open 2011, the exploits of Sevvy Part II

Game 3

Mission:  Sacrifice

Opponent: Paul Mansfield

Opposing  faction: Minions, Blindwater Congregation

Bloody Barnabas

*Blackhide Wrastler

*Ironback Spitter

*Bull Snapper

*Bull Snapper

Gatormen Posse(max)

Gatermen Posse (max)

My chosen army: eSevvy

eSevvy was chosen for this game as I'd decided I would over lunch, but seeing the match up was too good not to pass up considering my feat is so powerful against a heavy infantry list and the presence of the Covenant in this list basically nullifying the Barnabas feat entirely.  A superb match up for the glorious Menites, clearly the choirs had being singing with much enthusiasm!

Turn 1  My opponent, Paul, won the roll off and went first casting the various upkeeps and  surging the reptilian horde forwards.  I did the same, though through careful measuring of my control area knew my two Reckoners could get a cheeky assault order off on a couple of Gatormen, I missed one and the other took seven damage and was on fire.

Turn 2   Barnabas saw the mighty power of the Reckoner's ranged firepower and called forth several swamp pits into which the remaining crocs lurked practically making them impervious to being shot and they were within potential charge range of me next turn (Gatormen get extra charge movement against living models).  I knew this turn was going to be the decider and I had an evil plan!  I loaded up my jacks with focus, moved eSevvy forwards and feated, catching a good amount of the enemy army, I took control of a maximum 6 Gatormen infantry and did something terribly rude, which to be honest I’d planned from the start.  I shifted the four which were contesting the mosh pit out, running them towards my main army and facing them backwards, moved some Daughters of the flame into the pit to control it.  Then moved one of the other two Gators next to the ‘Sacrifice’ flag and scored.  The sacrifice mission means the model touching the flag takes a POW 20 hit and is flung like a power attack throw should it survive.  I destroyed the remaining Gatormen who had their backs cunningly faced to my fully powered Reckoner jacks.  So a control point up and most of the enemy heavy infantry decimated.  I also used the book to ensure Barnabas’ knock down feat wouldn’t affect any of my models.

Turn 3  My opponent had suffered a huge blow and tried to pull off and assassination, he managed to get a very thin LOS to eSevvy with the Spitter and fully boosted the shot, but only caused 4-5 boxes of damage, though he was corroded.  I sent a Reckoner into the Blackhide Wrastler, but didn’t manage to slay the beast, though I probably took 75% of its health away including a couple of aspects, I also killed off the remaining Gatormen.

Turn 4 Another valient effort from Paul, I had shut down any possible assassination vectors on Sevvy this turn, but Paul managed to throw my Reckoner out of the control zone and sacrificed a Bull Snapper on the exploding flag to make the control points level again.  He had to committed everything to this endeavour, and full credit to Paul is due here as he never gave in despite the dirty Menites having the upper hand from the off.  Barnabas ended up in a compromising position  and Paul knew his warlock would feel the Menites full wrath in retaliation.  Expecting this he put Iron Flesh (+3 DEF) and Spiny Growth (+2 ARM) on himself to limit my damage as well as two transfers.  During my turn I loaded up my jacks and decided the order for an assassination attempt on Barnabas.  eSevvy went first sending a fully boosted Hex Blast through the Blessing of Vengeance which not only damaged Barnabas, but removed the Iron Flesh upkeep spell and the Spiny Growth animus levelling the playing field again.  The Errants went in next, three getting Backstrike bonuses and a full charge damage, they carved out Barnabas’ transfers.  Next the brace of Reckoner’s went in causing damage and after a couple of hits forcing tough rolls.  Barny made two successive tough rolls and I was starting to run out of attacks to kill the cold blooded warlock !  The Vassal forced an ancillary attack on a Reckoner and dared Barny to make a third...... but the old crock failed so another assassination victory for the Menites!

Game 4

Mission:  The Gauntlet

Opponent: Tim Martin

Opposing faction: Circle of Orboros

Kromac

*Woldwyrd

*Pureblood Warpwolf

*Warpwolf Stalker

Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)

Stoneward and Woldstalkers

Blackclad Wayfayrer

My chosen army: pSevvy

I chose pSevvy for this game as I prefer him as a caster and I like the hitting power of the Avatar, plus both Circle lists had plenty of high DEF infantry: Ashes to Ashes plus the Vanquisher love that!

Turn 1  Tim won the roll off and chose the side with two forests which would aid his defence and not hinder his movement, given the plentiful pathfinder skills seen in the forest dwelling folk.  I advanced and put out my upkeeps.  I did switch flanks with my units so the Blessing and Vanquisher could hunt the infantry, whilst the Errants and Avatar the heavy beasts, doing this meant I missed my opportunity to put Defenders Ward onto the Errants (my usual target), so I chose the Avatar instead, this would later turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

Turn 2  Tim started to advance the Bloodtrackers, to chase their escaping prey, the Errants, and killed off the Vassal and half the Choir crippling my warjack support.  The Circle light construct started shoting at the Avatar with multiple shots that became more powerful by a D6 for it having an upkeep spell on it.  Luckily the Avatar shrugged off the bolts with ease given its ARM of 21.  Should the Errants have had the Defenders Ward upkeep spell on them several would have been undoubtedly slain!  Tim was cautious with his beasts and Kromac and didn’t advance too far forward at this point.  During my turn the Vanquisher's big AoE, the Blessing + pSevvy's Ashes to Ashes killed 8/10 Bloodtrackers and the two remaining were a good distance from threatening Sevvy.  The Errants shot the Circle solo dead and did some minor damage to the light construct.  They held position on a hill to have good ranged LOS as well as a bit more defence in preparation for the counter attack.

Turn 3  Tim’s turn three saw the Pureblood come out and attack the Errants with a 10" spray and a few died from a combination of remaining Circle attacks.  The remaining Errants and TFG charged the Pureblood during my turn and killed it, the Vanquisher incinerated a good portion of the Woldstalker's.  The Avatar and Blessing repositioned after clearing out my right flank of all threats.

Turn 4 The Stalker came out to play this round killing off most of the TFG and a couple of Errants in a flurry of berserk attacks.  The Vanquisher moved right up and shot the remaining Woldstalkers and I deliberately set up a trap where if the Stalker charged the Vanquisher the Avatar would counter it next turn.

Turn 5   Lots of death on both sides now and the Stalker took the bait, but I didn’t realise it could retreat so far after coming out to attack, it charged the Vanquisher and then had a Warpath move directly away, then it Sprinted (its own animus) even further, so no counter charging avatar!  During my turn five  I used my control to ascertain the Stalker was just out of charge range of the Avatar for definite but the Blessing could make it so he got a full allocation of focus and hit the Stalker very very hard, but not enough to kill it.  The last Errant and last TFG member jointly tied up the Bloodtrackers whilst killing the light Circle warbeast.  The Avatar gazed and ran straight up to Kromac and the wounded Stalker.

Turn 6  The clock was really ticking down now.  Kromac healed the Stalker who hit the Avatar as hard as it could but didn’t do too much damage (Defender's Ward really helped a lot here).  Kromac charged the Avatar too and hit it as hard as he could, denting it but not doing much damage, he then feated to keep on hitting it, burning through all his fury, still the Avatar lived, though his movement system and main melee weapon was crippled.  I had less than three minutes for my turn and had to move fast.  The Avatar rolled only two focus for this round so the Blessing took three focus should he need it.  The last choir boy was out of range to buff the warjacks so I went straight into combat with the Avatar.  The shield hit and caused 4-5 damage, which added to Kromacs feat damage, took him to at least 12 wounds taken at this point.  I boosted the to hit dice on the crippled sword and hit, striking at POW 20 it was pretty much over so I made sure by boosting the damage and rolled something like a 9 on 2D6 meaning it was all over with just a few seconds to spare and a third successive assassination victory for the Menites!

I'll add some thoughts and reflections in the third instalment as well as the photos I took of the armies people left out over lunch.  Some really nicely painted minis at this event so watch this space.

Golden Troll Open 2011, the exploits of Sevvy Part I

As I mentioned previously, from the Yorkshire area; myself, Luke Foster, Andy McBirnie and Mark Coultas were all attending the Golden Troll Open event, last Saturday (29^th October 2011).  For Luke and I it was our first tournament meeting up with various well known individuals from around the country, if you listen to the UK podcasts you’ll probably have heard of a few.  We knew the field was going to be very tough as many of these players are of the highest calibre in the land and many were finalists for the UK Hardcore Series final being held on the following Sunday!

My lists can be seen in this post and I kept to them without making any last minute changes.  Like I’d said in previous posts on the competitive aspect I could have done with more variation between the lists, but on reflection I had a great time and I don’t think that two very similar lists particularly hindered me.

Photos of my fully painted army can be seen below:

Exemplar Errants and UA

Daughters of the Flame

Covenant of Menoth

Temple Flame Guard

Right of passage (from prime to epic) Severius!

The obligatory Menoth Choir and Vassal

The Vanquisher and Avatar duo

The Blessing of Vengeance

I’ll run through my four games for those interested in my gaming exploits on the day:

Game 1

Mission:  Capture the Flag

Opponent: Lewis Johnson

Opposing  faction: Legion of Everblight

Vayl

*Scythean

*Ravgore

*Raek

Warmongers (full)

Raptors (min)

Annyssa Ryvaal

Shepherd

Strider Deathstalker

Strider Deathstalker

My chosen army: pSevvy

My opponent is very well known in the gaming community and currently seeded 1st on the UK Rankings; and I knew I was going to have a tough first round, luckily Lewis had a monster hang over after a heavy previous night!  We shared a few laughs over his exploits, but I didn’t think his inebriated state would make too much difference…

I chose my prime Sevvy list because I like that one the most, but after setting up I wondered if epic Sevvy would have served me better.  Still it was much of a muchness to be honest.

Turn 1  Lewis won the roll off and went first sending his Legion quickly up the field and positioning to strike next turn, I reciprocated during my turn.

Turn 2  Lewis’ next turn meant I lost numerous Errants and Choir members from long ranged shooting.  I retaliated by sending out a well placed Ashes to Ashes and boosting damage on Vayl, which was transferred.  I did spot an error on Lewis’ part as he had placed Vayl right next to a low DEF heavy beast, I shot the beast with the Vanquisher and set Vayl on fire, which was going to hamper him as the game progressed.  Lewis had lots of transfers so Vayl was still uninjured, though her beasts were sharing the damage I inflicted.  I also mauled most of the Warmongers unit, setting numerous alight and killed the Shepherd.  Not a bad turn really.

Turn 3  The fire stayed on Vayl and she transferred again.  Lewis opened up by moving his Raptors up and managed to get a cheeky LOS to Sevvy and shot him with their bows, Lewis hit with 2/3 shots and rolled really high twice putting Sevvy in the dirt.  We measured the range as 12" really was on the border line of being able to shoot Sevvy and one of the Raptors was out, but luckily for Lewis it was the one that missed anyway!

So game 1 was lost, I don’t think either of us thought that the Raptors could do it alone, but any dice game can see a couple of good rolls change the tide quickly.  I would have liked to see what had happened if I had survived the turn as Lewis would have feated and both armies would have clashed big time, still I lost fair and square and Lewis deserved his win.

Game 2

Mission:  Overrun

Opponent: Dean Hubbocks

Opposing faction: Circle of Orboros

Kromac

*Gnarlhorn Satyr

*Feral Warpwolf

*Warpwolf Stalker

*Gorax

Tharn Wolf Riders (min)

Druid Wilder

My chosen army: pSevvy

I picked pSevvy again as I like his play style and my opponent had two fairly beast heavy lists with lots of melee output and I wanted to match that with my own, plus each list had very few targets for eSevvys feat, not that pSevvy does much against Hordes anyway!

Turn 1  I won the roll off and opted for first turn and chose a board edge with a suitable piece of cover for Sevvy to hide behind, I knew I had to be careful of the Wolf Riders given pSevvy’s demise to similar light cavalry with ranged weapons so they were a target priority for me.  I just ran forwards on my first turn and put my upkeep spells up.  Dean used the assault order on his Wolf Riders and attempted to hurl javelins into my Errants, but was short on range, his beasts advanced to just outside of the scoring zone.

Turn 2 This turn was fairly decisive, the Wolf Riders were within arcing range of the Blessing and I blasted them with Ashes to Ashes, catching all three and a beast too.  Unfortunately I rolled abysmally and only killed one.  Should I have killed them all my Errants were going to charge/run at the Circle beasts and lock them outside of the scoring zone and try and force a scenario win, but instead I opted to advance them and shoot dead the remaining Wolf Riders and Druid Wilder solo and take the odd pot shot at the beasts with any remaining shots.  I had also advanced the Vanquished and shot a beast setting it and another on fire.  I enlivened the Vanquisher as it was now fairly forward hoping to bait a charge and then Enliven away.  Dean took the bait and charged the Vanquisher dealing 5-6 damage, it then made a full advance out of the way.  Dean sent his other beasts into the Errants and killed all but the officer, some sneaky self sacrificing prevented the Stalker from dealing too much damage which helped.  The Feral made a long charge at the already damaged Vanquisher, presumably to try and cripple it further, which it succeeded in doing as its combat arm lost its system boxes from the charge attack.  The Feral did take a mighty free strike blow from the Errant officer as it ran past, the weapon master carved out the beasts full spirit column in one blow which helped the Vanquisher not take more damage as it could no longer be forced.

Turn 3  When you get that feeling this turn is the one decisive one for the entire game you know its make or break time!  I opened up on the Gnarlhorn, it took a slapping off the Blessing of Vengeance, a fully boosted Immolation off Sevvy and a full CMA from the TFG, but it still drew breath, though it was almost dead.  The next thing was why I like PSevvy so much, the Avatar stepped forth with a full 4 focus and managed to engage two heavies (Feral and Stalker) and the light Circle beast too, it managed to kill all three and had focus enough to spare one to Gaze at the Gnarlhorn preventing it from moving away from the Avatar and potentially trampling towards Sevvy.  Dean had virtually nothing left to do and healed the Gnarlhorn a little, killed a couple of TFG and ran Kromac.

Turn 4  My turn four was swift, the Avatar finished off the wounded Gnarlhorn, then the Blessing advanced and killed Kromac.

So after two games I had achieved my objective and one one game out of four, though I ideally wanted a second victory.  During the lunch break I enjoyed some mild mannered banter with my buddies and we discussed the previous two games and everybody except me had used both lists so far (tournament rules stated that you must use each list at least once during the tournament) so I decided I’d be using epic Sevvy no matter what; and as previously discussed there wasn’t a lot of difference between my lists.

Part II will discuss the exploits of the afternoons gaming.