Place: 4th - Best of Mercs - Painting Runner Up
Today was the first of the Rising Conflict tournaments, which are tournaments Johanna has schemed to make us paint our miniatures - you can only use painted models. It was only 350 points, but I really struggled to get my stuff done in time. My sister recently had a baby girl, my mother's visiting, and I've been going over to help out so I've not had that much time to paint recently. I also got sidetracked by my new shipment of Mercenary goodness. It was only once I'd finished Ashlynn that it dawned on me that none of the actual stuff I was going to use were actually finished - except for Magnus, a Talon, and about half the Steelheads I'd need for one of my planned lists. As it was my carefully planned lists went out the window in favour for the following:
Magnus the Traitor
Mangler
Renegade
Renegade
Gorman di Wulfe
Reinholdt
Not a very balanced list, but I hadn't planned on playing in this tournament to begin with (originally it was to take place on the 1st but I would have been at Daniel's wedding then.) I've decided that using Obliterator Rockets as denial devices is a total waste of time, something that I've been doing a lot recently. Instead they should be viewed as 10 inch guaranteed knockdown devices. Anything outside of 10 inches means the template can scatter away from the target - 5 inches of movement and 5 inches to make the scatter irrelevant since the template is 4 inches in diameter - I call this range 'Scatter-Doesn't-Matter'. I've come to realise I can actually dictate where my opponent goes just by putting a Renegade there. Something to remember for the next time I get ganked by Jim.
Game One: Thomas, Circle
Scenario: No Man's Land (territory to hold running through the middle horizontally)
Baldur the Stonecleaver
Woldwarden
Woldwyrd
Tharn Bloodtrackers (8)
Shifting Stones
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew
This was the game where I decided to experiment with using Renegades and their rockets slightly differently, though I almost handed the game to Thom straight away when I moved a no-focus Magnus out of my deployment zone and he got a face full of javalins from the Tharn Bloodtrackers. Oddly I repeated this mistake later against Adam.
There was lots of mincing about and Thom killed Gorman and Reinholdt but failed to kill the Mangler. I killed most of the Bloodtrackers in the last turn - I hadn't used my Obliterator Rockets yet and Magnus had nothing to spend his focus on that turn so I dropped templates all over them. We through Thom had won on VPs until he kindly came over during my second game and informed me that we'd forgotten that I'd killed a Woldwyrd early on, meaning I'd won instead.
Game Two: Andrew Paul, Skorne
Scenario: Some sort of kit-kat bar one with territories running vertically up the table. I hate this one, it's made of gayness.
Lord Tyrant Hexeris
Titan Cannoneer
Cyclops Savage
Praetorian Swordsmen (8)
Ancestral Guardian
I was dreading this game since the scenario has traditionally been one I do horribly at - it forces my army to spread out in a way I don't like. Andrew Paul did some amazingly basic errors in this one. His Praetorians were crowded together very closely in some ruins - so I dropped an Obliterator Rocket on them and then sprayed them with Magnus a couple of times using Reinholdt's Reload ability. This unfortunately fuelled the Ancestral Guardian but I'd fired my rocket and was fully prepared to lose my Renegade the turn the Ancestral Guardian charged.
Then Andrew moved Hexeris and his Cyclops Savage bodyguard up my left flank and left them within 10 inches of Gorman, the Renegade that still had its rocket and within charge range of my undamaged Mangler. I didn't really need to Black Oil Hexeris but I thought I'd do it for good measure (you never know!). Anyway, Hexeris ate knockdown and then was pounded into the ground by the Mangler. Perhaps my easiest win of the day.
Game Three: Adam, Legion of Everblight
Scenario: Destruction (destroy the flags)
Lylyth, Herald of Everblight
Carnivean
Shredder x3
Strider Deathstalker x2
Totem Hunter
Adam should have won this one. I had a total brain-fart and moved Magnus out of my deployment zone with no focus, no cover or anything. Adam immediately saw the opportunity and came forward to attempt the assassination run and if weren't for some bad dice rolling Magnus would have been a very dead pincushion. As it was Magnus lived on 4 health despite being shot and chewed on by Lylyth (+ feat), both Deathstalkers, a rabid Shredder, and the Carivean's spray. Lylyth unfortunately was now in charge range of the Mangler and within the 9 inches of a Renegade (putting her inside SDM range). Knocked her down with the rocket, beat her up with the Mangler.
Game Four: Sean, Cryx
Scenario: Assassination (straight caster kill)
Warwitch Deneghra
Leviathan
Deathripper x2
Mechanithralls (6)
Pistol Wraith
Sean dominated me in this game. He just cast Parasite on each of my warjacks and then blew them to bits with the Leviathan's gun. He managed to blow the left arm off both Renegades almost straight away, meaning I had almost nothing to threaten him with. The game came down to time, but really, unless I had another 7 turns to chase after Deneghra with Magnus there wasn't a lot I would do. At least I did manage to blow up the Pistol Wraith in my first turn however, and killed all the Mechanithralls. Ah well.
Game Five: Iain, Khador
Scenario: Mosh Pit
Kommander Sorscha Kratikoff
Fenris
Doom Reavers (6)
Kayazy Assassins + Underboss (7)
Quite frankly this was a joke. Certain casters dominate this scenario heavily - Baldur, Sorscha, eMagnus being the main ones that come to mind. On a board that was 40% swamp (WHY OH WHY?!) against Sorscha and her amazingly stupid feat I didn't even make it into the Mosh Pit after losing my second turn. I thought Sorscha's feat was almost identical to Kreoss' feat, but no, it's about twenty times as gay. At least I can do some things after being knocked down. Don't feel Iain earned or deserved this win at all.
[edit] To clarify, Iain certainly deserved his 3rd place, I'm not trying to take that away from him; I just feel that our game shouldn't have ended the way it did - in total gimpyness through the sheer power of Sorscha's feat. If he'd totalled my army (highly likely with all those weapon masters and sneaky assassins) then sure, I'd feel a lot better about it.
Painting!
Well, three of us won painting prizes. Dermot for his Champions, Daniel (Johanna's boyfriend (I think)) for his Trollbloods in general and me because my painting "was the smoothest". I'm not entirely sure what that means, but I got a War Wolf solo out of it. I think I'll give it to Thom or Jim since they play Circle and I don't.
Overall I quite enjoyed this tournament, I got to meet a whole bunch of new people and hopefully get some regular games against more people. Next week is Conflagration, but Hannah is visiting so I might have to pass on it.
No comments:
Post a Comment