Game 3
Continuing my batreps from our club tourney we go to Game 3 where I faced off against Steven and his eThags army:
eThagrosh
Carnivean
Scythean
Raek
Legionnaires
Cauldron with Cauldron people
I had the same eSorscha list as before. Scenario was a radial one with our flag on our right and a zone we had to contest on the other side of the board. To score a point, we had to capture a flag and contest that zone. Steven and I were 2-0 going into this game and winner would play for the title in the next round.
I wasn't sure what to do but set up with Winterguard on the left, my battlegroup central, and Kayazy on the right. Solos were scattered in the middle.
I sent the Kayazy after the flag where they fought the Legionnaires the the whole game backed up by the Cauldron. Between Vengeance and an ability that gave some kind of feedback to my Assassins which possibly would kill them, they were a tough foe to crack especially with their buffed ARM of 18. Assassins hung in there though with their high DEF and ganging ability. At one point I thought I could clear my flag and score a point by running one of my assassins to contest the zone. This almost worked but I did two things wrong-- I forgot to go base to base with my flag after I cleared it and the other one was I think I needed the whole unit with 4" of the flag to secure it. So running that assassin to contest was neat but wouldn't have worked anyway.
Over in the middle I had my Spriggan with Great Bears for backup faced off against the Legion heavies. I charged the Spriggan on feat turn and took out the Carnivean but the Scythean and Thagrosh just counter attacked and the Spriggan was wrecked.
I lost some bears early to the Raek on the left flank who was trying to secure his flag. My winterguard attacked him but I messed up when I discovered that the Raek has stealth! I was sort of caught off guard and didn't even realize I could have just sprayed him instead of doing the CRAs. That little guy just confused the heck out of me and I tried leaving melee combat with him so I could shoot him but later realized that my Winterguard should have just charged him and finished him off. The Raek eventually secured the flag and only had a few boxes left and when the Legionnaires ran to contest my zone Steven got a point.
At that stage of the game I was without most of my heavy hitters and Thagrosh still had the Raek and Scythean to transfer to. With no hope of scoring a point and time running out I conceded the game.
Despite the loss, Steven was fun to play and he showed up to our gaming night last night and we talked about that game a little. I don't have that much experience with Legion so I asked him what I could have done better. He suggested that I forget the flag and go for the beasts as they are the key to Hordes and the source of the Warlocks power. Without the beasts, Warlocks cannot get Fury to power their spells and they don't have bodies to transfer damage to. So in Warmachine you can go for the caster but in Hordes it usually is better to take out the Beasts first.
Steven went on to face John, his former master and in the title match the apprentice won. Congrats again to Steven on winning it all. :)
But there was still one game to go and for me and Adam, this would decide 3rd place .
Game 4
I played Adam the Tuesday before the tourney and for this game he brought a very similar list:
eButcher
Juggernaut
Berserker
minMOWST
Fenris
2 units of Doom Reavers
Greylord Escort
Corbeau
Doggy
From my last game I knew that the doomies would be vulnerable to Winterguard sprays. His main assassination threat would come from Fenris so I had to keep an eye on him. Scenario was two 8" circles in the center. Score in the farthest one.
I went first and had Winterguard on the right, Kayazy on the left, and Battlegroup in the center. Bears were behind the Winterguard. I ran everyone up.
Adam had his two units of Doom Reavers on the front line with the MOWST and Butcher in the middle with the Juggernaut slightly to the left and Fenris was watching over the right flank behind the Doom Reavers.
My plan with my front line was to stay as close to the edge of the Doom Reavers as possible and only expose a few of my Winterguard to a charge. I put 3 forward and left Adam with a choice. He can charge those few Winterguard and recieve a counter attack from the entire Winterguard or he can hold back and allow me to advance with Desperate Pace and spray his line with boosted attacks. He chose to hold back a little and my Winterguard advanced under Bob & Weave and boosted attacks and the few Winterguard that shoot lined up at least two Doom Reavers in each of their sprays. 3 of them made Tough rolls but knockdown meant that they couldn't charge and attack. After seeing this Adam wasn't content to hold them back so he charged what he could and tried to tie up my WG, but with DEF 17 I lost only 1 or 2. Because the Doom Reavers had Reach, I was able to step a few of my WG back a little opening up the Doom Reavers to sprays that freed some of the WG. After that attack only 1 Doom Reaver was left and the Escort was taken out.
Over on the left, the Assassins faced off against the other Doom Reaver unit playing the same game as the Winterguard. I put only a few Assassins within charge range banking on their DEF 16 in melee. Behind them was arrayed the rest of the Assassins ready to counter attack. Adam sent the whole unit in a charge and after all the attacks I lost only 1 Assassin. Now I had options to either counter the Doom Reaver line or Killstroke past them. I did a little of both. Most hit the Doomies but a few ran past; one tied up the Juggernaut in my scoring zone and another met Fenris who had moved to the center after a few CRAs from the Winterguard. The left side Doom Reaver unit was wiped out and after a few more CRAs and the Assassins attack, Fenris was taken out of the game. Phew. Big threat neutralized.
In the middle Adam used his Berserker to slam my Spriggan out of the zone. This was a brilliant move as it knocked him down and collateral damage went to a Bear, but luckily the Bear lived. All that I had left were a handful of Winterguard in my zone at that point and if the Doomies had gotten a little luckier with their rolls, Adam would have scored a point.
His MOWST advanced under Shield Wall into Adam's scoring zone. They would be tough to crack. I first got up the Spriggan and charged it into the Berserker wrecking it. Then a Bear charged a Shocktrooper and killed him but there were two left in the zone.
Time was running out and I destroyed most of Adam's army and was in control of the attrition battle. He shifted Butcher to my scoring zone next to his Juggernaut and I was worried about sending all of my Assassins in there for fear of Butcher's feat turn. The last time we played, DEF 16 wasn't enough to stop Butcher. I would have liked to use Iron Flesh on them but I kept Sorscha way back for fear of Fenris. The decision to hold back the Assassins would be costly though as Dice Down was called and I ended u losing on tie breaker because Adam had 2 Shocktroopers in his scoring zone and I didn't have enough Assassins in mine.
I was a little disappointed to lose that one, especially because I was winning on the battlefield but I can't complain really because I had a fun game. I also learned some new tactics like keeping my guys out of charge range and only leaving a few vulnerable. It was great fun trying to control the front lines, especially against an army that doesn't rain constant AOEs on you.
Congrats again to Adam who earned 3rd place with that win and the guys from Red 5 ended up taking top 3 :D Since the weekend I've gotten to play John, who placed 2nd, and I really enjoy the games I get with them. Glad they make it out to our game nights and hope to get more games in the future.
So that was the tourney and I learned a lot. I've been talking with Steven and John and trying to figure out how to create two lists in a tourney. When people look at my lists, usually they can see a lot of high DEF and plan accordingly. So if I take one list with High DEF, the other should be a little different in some ways. Perhaps more armor. Will have to think more about that.
Also learned in the tourney that I don' t have many units that can run to a zone to contest it. I have a few solos but I play them conservatively so they're usually in the back. Perhaps I have to play them more forward.
No comments:
Post a Comment