Wolfcry 2013

I attended a small 1-day, 4-round, 16 player 50pt Steamroller last Sunday, and placed a respectable 6/16. I consider this an improvement over my last tournament placing, which was 24/32 or something equally terrible.

The one non-standard thing about the event was the choice of lists. You were allowed to bring as many lists as you wanted (up to 4), but had to play each list at least once. I chose to bring two lists, which didn't work out that well for me:

List 1:
Barnabas
Wrastler
Spitter
Snapper
2 Full Posse
Full Trogs
Witch Doctor
Thrullg
Swamp Gobbers
Totem Hunter

List 2:
Rask
Horror
Wrastler
2 Full Posse
Min Trogs
Wrong Eye
Snapjaw
Snapper
Witch Doctor
Swamp Gobbers

The Barnabas list was intended to face Legion, Cryx, Circle and certain Khador lists. The Rask one was best to deal with everything else. As you will see from the battle summaries below, this didn't really work out too well for me in terms of match-ups.

Game 1 - Skorne - eHexeris

This game was against Paul, a new player to our meta, who - like me - was ripped away from his native Canada at an early age to grow up in the southern colonies, and thus suffers from thinly-veiled rage at all times. But he is Canadian enough to repulse at being called a Newfie (which he isn't). The TO had matched us up together since he was under the impression we had never played before, when we in fact had played a match a few days before - with almost the exact same lists:

Lord Arbiter Hexeris (*6pts)
* Basilisk Krea (4pts)
* Cyclops Raider (5pts)
* Mammoth (20pts)
* Titan Gladiator (8pts)
* Aptimus Marketh (3pts)
Nihilators (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Agonizer (2pts)
Mortitheurge Willbreaker (2pts)
Mortitheurge Willbreaker (2pts)

I dropped Rask, as I like to do against Skorne. I decided to ambush my 6 Trogs as I felt relatively safe from assassination at DEF 17 ARM 17 and camping a fury or two, since I know can I remove Mammoth from the table without too much trouble. The scenario was Supply and Demand (Mosh Pit), which made no difference to anything.

Long story short, I used my feat + Inhospitable Ground to alpha strike, killed Mammoth with Fury + Boundless Charge Swamp Horror and a single Gatorman after shooting off Counterblast, then put pressure on his support with the ambushing Trogs. The middle of the table is otherwise a huge grind based around a really annoying hill - the one remaining threat at this stage was a half-dead Gladiator within charge range of Rask. I charged this Gladiator with a full-health Wrastler, Death Rolled boosted to hit, and rolled a 5. A follow up POW 17 attack also missed. I ran the Swamp Gobbers in the way in the hope that it would prevent him trampling or charging his way up. Hexeris went for a last ditch assassination attempt by killing the Wrastler using most of his fury + his feat, giving the Gladiator a chance, but he missed the Swamp Gobber hoping for a follow-up slam (which wouldn't have worked, we discovered, as the Gobber dies 100% to the slam itself, so no follow up).

He said he was going to try to assassinate Rask under Dark Waters using his feat + several Soul Fires through his Raider arc node but screwed up his order of activations so wasn't able to do it. I am kind of glad, since Rask's feat also stops arcing (the caster is the one making the attack and he is further than 5" from the spell target) and that would have left a bad taste in my mouth.

1-0 so far. Happy I didn't choke first round as I usually do.

Game 2 - Bart/Galleon 

All these things are horrible inventions and have caused untold human suffering.

This game was against Chris Baker, one of the NZ Warmachine scene veterans, self-proclaimed dick, and generally a quite knowledgeable and experience player. I like to think of Bart/Galleon as a faction in itself, since it is so goddamn stupid and I hate to think that Mercs are capable of such retardation. This list was Bart, Galleon, a Vanguard, and a crapload of character stuff that makes Galleon manlier (WE+Snapper, Ayanna + Holt, Dougal, Ragman, Thor, Gorman, eEyriss... etc). Scenario was Ammunition Run, and neither of us remember to explode anything (I killed two for 2 CPs, yay).

I chose to drop Rask again as I felt with 3 heavies, Fury, and the ability to shoot off Hot Shot and Spiny Growth I might have a snowball's chance in hell at killing the Galleon. This didn't work out at all, mostly due to good terrain use on his part and good timing with the feat.

We both made some pretty significant tactical errors (he left Eyriss within 5" of Galleon one turn, I left one extra fury on Snapjaw for no reason and he frenzied on some Posse, etc.), but ultimately my strategy for the game was not anywhere near as good as his (sit in the zone with Galleon between two terrain pieces and hide everything behind it), and I lost every single model over about 8-ish rounds in return for killing maybe 5 pts of stuff. One of these next to Galleon the whole game definitely hampered me to no end:

Am I correct in saying these things are EXTREMELY
annoying in Warmachine games? Tiny linear obstacles?
Rough terrain? Miniature Satans? Who knows.

 1-1 so far. My regular win-lose-win-lose tournament streak is going well.

Game 3 - Trolls - eDoomshaper

This was a very odd game. The table had some illegal terrain placement (per SR2013, you cannot place any terrain piece within 3" of another terrain piece), notably a large house on my left, which had a linear obstacle perpendicular to it, which in turn also had a linear obstacle perpendicular to it. Basically it was a large house with a large T sticking out of it made from linear obstacles. My Troll opponent Luke H. got a raging Troll hard-on when he saw this, and spent the first few turns of the game with his heavies and caster hiding in a 3 sided wall bunker (thank Janyssa!).

List was:

Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia (*6pts)
* Pyre Troll (5pts)
* Troll Axer (6pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
* Mulg the Ancient (12pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Kriel Warriors (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* 3 Kriel Warrior Caber Thrower (3pts)
* Kriel Warrior Standard Bearer & Piper (2pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Janissa Stonetide (3pts)
Troll Whelps (2pts)

The scenario was Into the Breach (the one with the zone on the left and flag on the right), which actually made a huge difference since the aforementioned wall bunker was dead center of the zone. Therefore he decided to throw literally his entire army into the zone. Realizing that I had no chance in hell of getting any points on that side, I ran Rask to the flag (I went second) and told him he had 5 turns to get near this flag as I jammed up his bunker with Gators and heavies, and whatever I could muster.

When it looks like this on your left, go right.

Eventually, one turn away from defeat, he managed to pull off an epic ninja goad chain with Mulg to get him within 3.5" of the flag to deny me my 4th point. I responded by picking Mulg up with the Swamp Horror, throwing him away, hitting him with Voodoo Doll from Wrong Eye and blocking his spirit, then jamming him with stuff. At this stage he had mere minutes on his deathclock and rushed to recover, forgetting I had locked Mulg down for good, and he deathclocked himself.

Wrong Eye was definitely the all-star in this game, as he not only Voodoo Doll-ed Mulg, but the Earthborn's spirit a turn earlier.


2-1 and a lot of CPs. Legit.

Game 4 - Skorne - Zaal

All this point, I was locked into Barnabas and facing Skorne for 3rd place overall. Not a good prospect at all. Jason from Hamilton, who is one of my favourite opponents despite his amazing ability to somehow find new and original ways to douche me every game, chose to drop Zaal, which again is not a good prospect given Zaal's ability to deal massive damage with almost anything and the large number of Steady super-powered AGs around the place:
 
Supreme Aptimus Zaal & Kovaas (*5pts)
* Basilisk Krea (4pts)
* Cyclops Raider (5pts)
* Mammoth (20pts)
Nihilators (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Venators Slingers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
Ancestral Guardian (3pts)
Ancestral Guardian (3pts)
Extoler Soulward (2pts)
Hakaar the Destroyer (4pts)

Not feeling very confident at all. Scenario was Fire Support (two flags with objectives that each contest the flags). He deployed the Mammoth, Slingers and an AG to my left which means I was never going to get that flag since I can't kill an Inviolable Resolve Mammoth with that much stuff around it to block charges. And since it is a Skorne heavy and a caster with Hex Blast, I can't jam it up with DEF 16 Posse like I would a crappier Colossal.

Basically I came to the conclusion after two rounds that I was not going to be able to win on scenario and I would have a bad time on attrition. I began my third turn looking at Zaal with 1 fury, and decided my odds of making an assassination were better than the odds of my winning this on scenario or attrition. I charged Barnabas forward into a Nihilator, popped my feat (which caught everything in his army), used my Blood Cleaver on the charge attack to get a free Flesh Eater at a KD-ed Zaal, then cast two more Flesh Eaters. This left Zaal at 2 boxes and still had his transfer - unlucky with the dice = assassination failed. I then shot him with the Spitter, forcing another 7 pts of damage to be transferred and corroding him. Realizing that with 2 boxes he was safe from dying to corrosion next turn, I basically jammed my entire army into him in the hopes that Barnabas would live, but alas a Last Stand-ed Hakar under Zaal's feat can kill Barnabas in 3 hits.

2-2, second most CPs, and a placing of 6th overall.

Things I would have done differently overall

A little bit of reflection always helps one improve. Other than removing the tactical mistakes I made in all my games (which can be addressed as 'play better'), here is what I would change:

• Drop Barnabas against Bart/Galleon - I was pretty sure this game was going to be a loss, so I should have got Barnabas out of the way to give me open selection later on in the tournament. I would still have been able to get my two control points and drop Rask in the final round, which means I kill the Mammoth and then hide behind Inhospitable Ground.
• Ignore Galleon entirely - given favourable terrain placement and tigher play, I think it is possible for Rask with 3 heavies to destroy Galleon. However, this was not the case here. The better strategy would have been to flank heavily with both Gatorman Posses (hopefully protected from Galleon guns with the feat before the charge), while just throwing heavies at Galleon to hold him in place. The stuff at the back is super squishy and prone to death, the hard part is just getting there, which is difficult with no guns.
• Roll 1 better on the Zaal assassination - I still think the assassination run was the right move. To pull it off, I needed to do at least 15 pts of damage to Zaal on 3 Flesh Eaters. 3 POW 13s at dice -1, at expected value is 18 pts of damage. I did 13. Assuming one more point of damage, the Spitter shot was a good chance at a kill, as corrosion had a 2 in 3 chance of finishing him off next turn.
• Take a Croak Hunter or two - So many games I find myself wishing I had one gun to shoot an annoying model, or finish off a Gargantuan with 1-2 boxes, or kill Zaal after rolling poop on damage. Croak Hunters sadly are the only thing Blindwater has for ranged attacks outside Spitters, Sac Strikes and Calaban's gun. Maybe I will try to play with them some more and they won't disappoint me so much.
• Remember Bog Trog ambushes! - I don't think this made too much of a difference, but forgetting to ambush 10 Bog Trogs on turn 2 of the last game maybe changed things a bit (most likely would have taken assassination completely off the table as Zaal would have held on to a few more fury). In the first game I held them until turn 3 on purpose, since I felt the 6 of them would die to A2A or Mammoth AoEs without much in return.

I think my game against Trolls was very well played and capitalized on my opponent's strategic error of overcommiting to the zone so no big changes on that side of things. As to my first game against Skorne, the only point I was really at risk of losing was when I failed to roll a 6 on 3 dice for that Wrastler on Gladiator charge. So, roll better.


Oh, the guy that won the tournament is the Ret player I play almost every week and who rips his hair out on account of Gators. Turns out luck of the draw matchups is a pretty big deal :)