I’ve been a bit lax of late writing up my tournaments as
well as painting related blog entries, but will endeavour to right my tardy
ways! Below is a brief account of my
Menite crusade at the National Masters 2013.
I’ll get a write up done of the recent ETC13 as well as some photos of
my latest painting projects.
National Masters 2013
The National Masters is perhaps the biggest individual
tournament of the year, well at least so far with 128 player sell out [124
attended event]. It was held at the
North West Gaming Centre in Stockport.
I’d heard various rumours about the place being able to cope with the
volume of players, I was happy to see that it worked out ok; no more crowded
than the old 40K GT’s at Warhammer World or events at the late Maelstrom.
In all fairness the organisation was very good, registration
was quick and simple – it was also very nice to get a ‘goodie bag’ with a few
freebies including a Menoth t-shirt in my size (purely random)! The tables were all ok, though there was some
conjecture over the terrain, all of the wood templates were square, as opposed
to a kidney shape – similarly for areas of rough ground. Personally I thought this was a bit naff as it
meant that the 90 degree corners could block LOS, but models could be so close
that they engaged in melee but couldn’t see one another?!? Reason was because the terrain builder
apparently didn’t own a jigsaw and resorted to a hand saw…
Regards to gameplay I took the three lists I mused over in
my last entry, but to recap; Feora2, Kreoss1 and Harbinger were the casters.
GAME1
Kevin D
Khador Irusk1
Close Quarters
Close Quarters is a good scenario to actually win on
scenario and I chose Harby as she does well against Khador in general as well
as being a scenario caster, my opponent won the roll and chose board edge,
perhaps a mistake from his end given my usual first turn:- I popped my feat, cast Crusader’s Call and
charged a random model in LOS which effectively locked down all of his infantry;
doing this effectively hits the enemy deployment zone with Harby’s gargantuan
20” control area. Kevin didn’t move much
in his first turn and my turn two was fairly uneventful as I advanced Harby
next to my flag and formed a defensive formation knowing the Khador needed to
advance to stop me scoring. Kevin didn’t
advance far enough and I scored in his turn, then again in my following turn. We fought a small attrition battle, one which
I didn’t really commit to particularly as I was winning on scenario, I just
kept Harby safe and kept some pressure on his flag. Oddly Kevin allowed me to score for a second
time in his turn, which equated to 4-0 on control points by the time I had
taken my following turn. I just made
sure Harby was safe and Irusk1 couldn’t score without committing lots of
resources. Kevin again failed to contest
my flag during his turn allowing Harby to dominate for a fifth successive turn,
scoring my last control point in Kevin’s turn and ending the game there.
The game was a good start for me, but I can’t help thinking
that my opponent should have committed harder to stopping me scoring during his
turns, perhaps committing his Conquest to this task, maybe he didn’t quite
realise how scenario scoring worked, though I’m chuckling in my head as Dave F
will call this the ‘Fun Hoover’ tactic, i.e. where Harby first turn feats and
wins via scenario ;-)
WIN, 5 CTRL, 10 AP’s
GAME2
Colin M
Cygnar Caine2
Outflank
I chose Feora2 as my match up here as Colin had Haley2 and
Caine2, neither of which like fire, though I do struggle against Cygnar. I expected to see Haley2, but was sort of
happy to see Caine2. Colin’s list was
pretty much a copy of one of the American tournament winning lists with full Boomhowlers,
Forgeguard and Alexia & the Risen, it is a very grindy list and also high
armour and tough models, when you do kill them they generate souls for
Alexia. I’d never played it before but I
like attrition fights and thought I’d see what happened!
The game went as predicted into a massive attrition fest, of
note stray, non-battled fire AOE’s do not kill Arcane Shielded, tough
Boomhowlers, nor do they kill Defensive
Line Forgeguard, but what it does do is provide an enormous armour buff on
Feora’s feat turn and the ability to show her face to Caine2 and make him say
‘naah’ for a feat turn assassination run, yep Caine2 won’t get out of bed to
try and take down and ARM 35+ Feora2. This
allowed me to burn the daylights out of Alexia and co as well as most of the
rest of the army as POW12’s do smart the following turn.
Another quality anecdote from the game was when Colin ran
his own Boomhowler next to Feora2 and blinded it as well as Feora2 and my
Reckoner with a Black Oil off Gorman, a nice manoeuvre as Gorman ended up quite
safe from retaliation. However I had an
epiphany, Judicator picked up the blinded Boomie and two handed threw it at
Gorman, it bypasses Stealth as it is
a melee attack (not ranged), a boosted MAT8 with super Colossal strength
spelled his doom – best move of the tourney for me!!
The game saw me up on the attrition front and eventually I
was able to dominate one of the zones for a second scenario win.
WIN, 5 CTRL, 38 AP’s
GAME3
William C
Cryx Asphyxious2
Destruction
I felt that Kreoss1 was my best match up for Cryx and went
with that, I’d had loads of practice for last year’s ETC against my friend Andy
with this match up, though it is really tough.
The game started off badly for me, I learned the hard way
that there was an inconsistency between the Battle Engine’s card and Wrath book’s
description of how Doors of Judgement
works and basically William managed to get a ‘live the dream’ Bile Thrall purge
off on all my Errants and my caster as well as some other bits! The difference between disabled and boxed being
the issue here; it has since had errata to confirm which is correct, but I
thought I was safe – oh how I was wrong!!!
I made a bad feat decision and clipped all of the Bloodwitches, but
William informed me that when they are Incoporeal,
during their mini-feat, they can’t be knocked down – ah crap wasted feat!
In essence I went quite heavily down on attrition and
eventually Asphyxious2 feated and managed to assassinate Kreoss1. Sadly the game got a bit scrappy towards the
end, time was running out, some of William’s charge lanes and distances were really
tight on Kreoss1 and I really wanted to measure them accurately and this didn’t
happen, though to be honest it wouldn’t have mattered that much as I had very
little left and I’d lost a lot earlier on the attrition front. But still, players really ought to adhere to
accurate movement whether or not time is running out for them.
Post-game I realised that there is actually nothing stopping
incorporeal models being knocked down which would have made a difference, but I
wasn’t overly bothered. I certainly
picked up some steep learning from the game, William eventually finished in the
top 5, so that would help my SOS no end!
LOSS, 0 CTRL, 15 AP’s
GAME4
Daniel K
Cryx Asphyxious2
Incursion
Little did I know but Daniel Knauss is the German WTC
captain, he also dropped Gaspy2 against me, a different list to William’s, but
still nasty!!
The attrition battle went better this time, I killed the Bloodwitch
Hag with a crafty bounce off the Battle Engine’s gun, nice, as this would help
the Errants survive longer. Daniel
caught me with the Gaspy2 clouds and locked in melee trick on a few Errants,
combined with Gaspy2’s soul collection AOE, this power’s up the caster for the
next turn quite easily. I managed to get
a few Errants out and continued to kill stuff, particularly Bile Thralls! My feat turn was much better as Daniel was
the one who told me that Bloodwitches could be knocked down whilst
incorporeal!!
Although the attrition was looking strong for me Daniel saw
a cheeky sliver of opportunity and blasted Kreoss through a tight gap with
multiple magic missiles, dropping him to just a couple of health, I survived
but was in a tough position! Just on a side note Daniel was really good on the
tightness and we used a laser line to determine the preciseness of the LOS,
something that should have factored in game 3.
I couldn’t retaliate on Gaspy2, he was too safe, so
continued the attrition, but aware Daniel still had a feat, I made sure Kreoss1
was safe as a priority and camped focus to try and weather anything that could
possibly get through.
Daniel was very cunning and brought back several Satyxix
Raiders, these obviously couldn’t get through to Kreoss1, but what they could
do is feedback damage to my almost
dead caster. This is what killed Kreoss1,
though due to Daniel’s bad luck Kreoss1 almost survived. Fair play to Daniel, he played it like a pro
and although he dropped from the Masters after playing me to compete in the
Iron Gauntlet event on the Sunday he still gave me a hell of a good game and
then went on to win the IG event the next day!
LOSS, 0 CTRL, 25 AP’s
GAME5
David D
Legion Lylith2
Process of Elimination
After being mown down by Cryx twice in a row I was glad to
see another faction and caster. There
was a bit of list chicken between me and my opponent, though I knew I would be
taking Feora2 as he had Lylith2 as a caster and my immunity to fire would be
golden if he chose this. I was a little
surprised that he did in fact choose Lylith2, but maybe that was the whole list
chicken thing – I just played safe to be honest.
The game was basically a rush forwards from me, partly because
Dave’s force was primarily shooting and not much in the way of melee, whereas
my army could shoot, but had the edge in melee.
We attritioned quite a bit as the two armies closed, but a charging
Judicator meant that several key beasts were slain, my other two jacks also
made the distance and caused mayhem. My
infantry locked down Dave’s forces, the TFG doing a solid job on my right
flank, eventually getting into the back lines.
Dave managed to destroy the Judicator, but it was too late as my forces
were in position, the game ended when the Reckoner killed Lylith2. I think Dave was a little disheartened by the
match up, though I think he too lots of positives from the encounter.
WIN, 0 CTRL, 58 AP’s
GAME6
Mr M
Legion Vayl2
Into the Breech
Legion twice in a row now, but my opponent opted for Vayl2,
I again picked Feora2 – mainly for the immunity to fire, mitigating the
Ravagore assassination threat. Vayl2
however poses a credible spell assassination with two fully boosted Obliteration spells.
The game started well for me, I was able to use the Reckoner
and Judicator in a combined arms approach and shoot the daylights out of the
Legion heavies from a central firebase, using some walls as protection as well
as denying Mr M the option of scenario, though I was only just toeing in the
zone to be fair.
A pivotal point in the game arose when I thought Mr M had
declared a charge off one of his Ravagore’s against my Judicator. As I remember it he measured his casters
control area and said 'it was in', I said that it was really tight and I wanted
to measure it accurately. I proceeded to
measure the distance with various precise measures and found the Ravagore to be
just short. At this point Mr M said he
would shoot instead, I felt this was off as a charge had been declared and the
model should have been placed just short; Mr M then said “I was only measuring
my control area and hadn’t actually declared the charge”. Clearly there had been a miscommunication,
both of us felt awkward and in hind sight I should have called a judge and gone
with whatever they suggested. We played
it in Mr M’s favour and the Ravagore stayed still and shot. Annoyingly Mr M’s dice spiked big time that
turn and the Judicator fell. This was a
huge turning point in the game, from being in a very strong position, then made
stronger by a failed Ravagore charge and being gifted that beast I would have
been so far up on attrition I doubt I would have lost. Now I was right on the back foot…
I was really upset by the misunderstanding and almost
conceded there and then because I felt that what happened was the single worst
thing in any Hordes and Warmachine game I’d ever played, but the voice inside
of me told me to carry on and not to give up. I should note that this was purely how the situation made me feel (at the time).
The last few turns saw more attrition and Mr M going ahead
at this point, both of us had lost a lot and I was now loosing on scenario as
well. Having lost all my jacks I went
for an assassination run on Vayl2 with Feora2 herself, but the dice weren’t
with me and I missed the enemy caster with all my attacks, even boosting, so I
was sat with no focus next to Vayl2 and a heavy warbeast. I had forgotten to activate some Zealots
several turns in a row, but had run them around the back of the remaining
Legion forces and in what I thought was my last act I threw their bombs into
the back arc of the heavy warbeast and my dice turned round a bit and I caused
a lot of damage, though it doesn’t mean a lot when Hordes factions can heal
their beasts easily. I was certain this
was it and again considered conceding, just to get it over with, but again I
held on!
The next turn was possibly quite unbelievable, I honestly
thought Mr M would simply heal the wounded heavy and charge Feora2 and pretty
much one shot her for the win, but instead he turned Vayl2 away from Feora2,
healed the beast and then tried to clear the zone for a scenario win. Somehow the smattering of Vassals, Choir boys
and Mechanics who had nothing better to do than clog the zone managed to
survive, I seem to recall Mr M rolling a double one at a critical to-hit
point! Jeez I was still in it. On my next turn I was almost clocked out of
time so Feora2 simply let rip into the back arc of Vayl2 and tore her to pieces
– I’d just won…..
WIN, 0 CTRL, 61 AP’s
GAME7
Kris R
Menoth Feora2
Close Quarters
I was pretty tired at this point and there was talk of there
being no more games, but it depends on whether there is a single undefeated
player, as there were still two we played the seventh round. I drew Kris, a fellow Menoth player and WTC
team member, currently #1 Menoth player in the UK Rankings, so it was going to
be tough!
Kris’ force had a similar composition to mine, though he had
one less heavy, but instead Eiryss2 and Rhoven & Co. We talked about his list as I was quite intrigued
by his choices, I often wish I had Eiryss2 with Feora2 and did used to run my
list that way. Regards the match-up, it
was fairly even, though the presence of Eiryss2 could change the balance in
Kris’ favour I felt. I think we both
knew in list selection that it would be a Feora2-off…
Kris took the first turn and hauled ass up the field to get
position. I responed, but made targeting
infantry near Eiryss2 a priority, I really wanted her dead as I knew what would
happen if not. I failed in my attempt to
kill Eiryss2 and as I predicted she ran at my Judicator, whilst his advanced
into charge range. My choice is to
either advance and hit the enemy Judicator twice (no focus) and get destroyed
in return or back off. I chose to back
off and kill Eiryss2 and continue the attrition. To be honest the attrition was fairly even,
perhaps a bit more in my favour – but nothing to crow about.
Backing Judicator off led to a change in the no-mans-land
lines and actually now allowed Kris to score on the scenario flag safely,
whereas I couldn’t as I would be in the enemy Judicator/Reckoner’s charge
range. It would just take Kris five
turns to win unless I could mix it up.
To be honest I was pretty much out of ideas and was knackered at this
point so I tried to get my Feora2 into a scoring position on full camp, but set
a trap for the enemy Judicator and maybe try and rush everything in and see
what happened!! A few errors on my part
as I tried to engineer the plan, not clearing out some enemy Zealots meant I
couldn’t score a point back.
Kris spotted a cheeky move, well actually it was quite
inspired, he slammed my Reckoner with his and cleared some infantry off my flag
and scored on that meaning he went 5-0 on scenario and secured a victory.
A really good game, I was outplayed by a better player, so
no bones at loosing this game, the better players look at things like the power
attacks to get the scenario wins and they are often overlooked.
LOSS, 0 CTRL, 23 AP’s
CONCLUSION
So overall I won four games and lost three, something I was quite happy to achieve, my SoS was quite high and I ranked highly in my 3-2 bracket coming a very respectable 38th out of 124. I had a few tough games, the Gaspy2 match-ups were really hard and I'm thinking that Kreoss1 is not the man these days, perhaps Feora2 can rise up to the Cryx challenge!?!
Loads of positives from the 'Masters' experience, it was more competitive than other events I've been to, but all my opponents were decent guys and I enjoyed the games - roll on 2014!
