16-02-2009, 03:40 PM
Tournament Report:
Resistance at Battlenet: Norwich.
After a very sleepless night running potential Sorscha beating scenarios through my mind, we set off to Norwich at an oh so pleasant 7:45. Heading up was myself, John, Barry and Phil. The journey passed quickly, with much posturing, theorymachine and smacktalk… all things I am quickly learning are essential to any successful day of gaming. The highlight of the morning was John and Phil assembling the tattered ruin of John’s Skorne army after an incident with John missing a step on his way to driving over to pick me up. I hear carry cases are a good investment.
We arrived early and rather than experience the joys of corporate whorehouse coffee, we headed to a stunning greasy spoon next to the tourney location. What fallowed was one of the most interesting breakfasts I think any of us had experienced for a while. Bacon that looked like roadkill, sausages described as “mushy” by John and some rather odd brownie for the vegetarian among us (me).
After that we headed up to meet our erstwhile foes. I noticed several familiar faces (I had previously met two chaps during my time as a GW staffer at various meetings, and a certain Mr Whilleby who I knew from my store days). The setup of all tables was certainly interesting. Every table was identical, with two hills in opposite corners and four wall/trench pieces enclosing the bulk of the centre of the table. Circle was not going to have a good day (not that I saw any).
The games got underway, with Barry, Phil and myself moving tables twice due to late arrivals, thus starting ten minutes after the rest of the pack. A great start.
Game One: Mosh Pit: James/Cygnar/Hayley
Game one was against a fairly typical Hayley list. One squire, the B13, six trenchers, a full unit of sword knights plus UA, Thorn and a Stormsmith is about what I remember but there may have been more. First turn was won by James (a theme for the day) and he rammed his army into the middle of the table, stopping only to drop smoke across his lines.
I saw an opportunity as I had only smoke between my army and Hayley. I ran a jack into the smoke, dropped my feat and arced a scourge at Hayley, looking to boost both rolls. Of course, me being a total muppet meant I had forgotten about her spear and I had wasted my feat and focus for no kill. Again, a theme for the day.
The game then proceeded to be a series of Cygnar rolling backwards turns, with smoke blocking a lot of LOS and TB stopping my force. I was reduced to purging at my own Bile Thralls to kill a mere three Trenchers, still less smoke.
Me being a total spanner I was letting shots be taken against Cankerworm who was continually pushed back by gunmage captain fire (there was one of them too). Of course, some would argue he might have stealth, but I like to make it hard for myself. Or something…
Also, I had forgotten it was a 14” diameter, not radius, so had actually won two turns before time was called. Despite this, I went in to the last turn down on VPs with three Cygnar troops in the pit, including one of the B13 under smoke. I had previously popped the stormsmith with the Withershadow so was sitting on a soul, and converged on the hapless troopers with a mix of hellfire, pistol wraith fire and a timely venom arced into the B13 to ignore their smoke/stealth issues.
Victory was mine, despite having no joy with purges. Hayley lived, although I had corrosion on her for three turns and had chipped away at her. The end result was 5 SPs and 6 VPs for killing half units and solos.
The game was great, perhaps the best of the day. Victory could have gone either way, and I think we both enjoyed the challenge.
Game two: No Man’s Land: James/Menoth
Second game was against a Jack heavy Menoth list. Facing me was Severius, a choir, a revenger, two redeemers and the Blessing of Vengeance, two paladins of the wall and Vilmon.
I had just been told I had taken best painted for the day with Goreshade’s Bane Army so decided to give him a run as the –2 Arm and stealth would help chop up any Jacks that crossed my path.
Again I lost the first turn, allowing for the two Redeemers to take up position behind a trench where they stayed all day firing rockets. The two other jacks each held a flank with the trio of paladins holding the centre. The choir and Sevvy hung back singing and blessing all the jacks to boost their RAT/POW.
I advanced, spreading my troops out to minimise incoming rockets. Every turn saw both Redeemers get three focus and spam me with rocket fire that slowly whittled down numbers. I did have a Bile take three scatters and survive them all, before purging on the choir, killing all four. I had cursed the Blessing early on with Tartarus before charging in my Bane Knights (with dark shroud) who pulled both its arms off. On the other flank Tartarus and the Withershadow combined fire and melee to do the same to the Revenger. Meanwhile my Biles were advancing under fire, purging a couple of times to damage the jacks.
Highlight of the game is when Vilmon charged my Slayer (yes I took a Slayer!) but took a free strike from a Bane Knight on the way that killed him. I never even feated, but purged both the remaining Paladins and tore down the last few boxes on the Revenger, leaving no Menites in the capture zone, giving me the game.
I had scored a slightly better 10 VPs this game, leaving me with a 10SP/16VP total for the final game.
Game Three: Contested Ground: Barry/Cygnar
Yup, I faced Barry in the final. With Hayley… again. We had both scored the same VPs so faced off in a sister bitch fight to the death. (I had hoped Barry would try to outfox me with Siege but it was not to be).
Again I lost first turn and Barry advanced his Solo Merc army… I mean Cygnarans up to take cover behind the trenches (B13) and line up some shootiness with some Longunners. Aryianna and Holt covered one flank, while Eyris and Alexia covered the other. Thorn ran up the middle, arced scramble onto Canker then buggered off.
In my turn I achieved very little, running up to arc a venom at the longunners, again targeting too close to Hayley allowing it to be dispelled. You think I would learn. I also put Crippling grasp up on Thorn. Critically…
Barry’s turn saw TB come up, then a series of devastating shots that removed all my Bile Thralls bar one. Luckily he was hidden behind a wall and Barry failed to spot him. I was feeling pretty sad at this point... all those nice Gunners lined up and nothing to purge at. However, I saw an opportunity. I ran my Nightwretch up to flank the B13 lined up near Hayley, moved forward what I could and popped Denny’s feat. I had six focus left and proceeded to arc two venoms onto the near B13 who was thankfully out of range of Hayley's flipping spear. The plan was to use boosts to fry Hayley and take the game. Sadly, despite two Venoms and melting three points off the Squire and two of the B13 I managed to do a stunning two points of Damage to Hayley and put up Corrosion on her.
I was slightly sad about this and resigned to a loss. I managed to fry Thorn with some Withershadow goodness and a melee from a Deathripper, (which Barry kindly allowed me to take out of turn, that cost him badly!) Leaving his wreck on three boxes, surrounded by Withershadow.
In Barry’s turn he was sad to discover his Control Had dropped by 4”, crucially leaving some of my stuff out of TB! Also, the evil Elven hooker (sorry, Eyris), was under the withering so couldn’t charge Denny. As such he was reduced to dropping his feat and shooting up my Bonejacks to stop me arcing into Hayley. He also cunningly used his Journeyman to finish off Thorn, preventing me getting a free bonejack in my turn. Critically, he again failed to kill my Bile Thrall and took the MOV and ARC off the Nightwretch but left him alive.
In my (final) turn I gave two focus to the Nightwretch and tried to put Hayley down for good. Sadly, she was hit well, but survived with three life. I tidied up the far left flank, using Mech Thralls to kill all the risen, before purging my Bile Thralls at the incorporeal Pistol Wraith standing behind the invisible A+H with predictable results.
This gave me the game, but I still was after Hayley’s blood. I used the B13 and Denny to try to spell her off the table, claiming a long gunner in the process. Sadly the Combine needed a double six to hit her due to the trench, even with Puppet Strings I could only get a six and a five. Denny decided she too wasn’t playing and failed to put the killing blow up.
Still, I had taken two points from claiming the flanks, while Barry had scored none…
Victory was mine, in a close fought game. TB really closes down an army using Biles, that’s what I learned today… plus I hate Hayley’s spear!
Poor Barry had to face three Cryx armies in the day (Denny/Terminus/Denny), although I had faced two Hayleys.
In the end John took gold after scoring a stupid amount of VPs in the early games. I took silver and best painted and James from my first game took bronze. Not 100% about the scoring system but three games aren’t enough to really set the field. By losing to me Barry fell out of the top four despite winning his first two games which seems odd to me.
Bringing up the rear was Phil who was brought low by John and his “balanced” Skorne. Phil was (I’m told) wiping the floor with John until he failed to kill the warlock by one point. John then shredded Phil’s with a pumped up Ancestral Guardian. Such skill…
The return journey was again filled with more banter and posturing, with plenty of speculation and what ifs, before the conversation naturally turned to Battle Star and other things…
So, not a bad day all things considered. Thanks to Barry for the lift, looking forward to the riots next month…
Resistance at Battlenet: Norwich.
After a very sleepless night running potential Sorscha beating scenarios through my mind, we set off to Norwich at an oh so pleasant 7:45. Heading up was myself, John, Barry and Phil. The journey passed quickly, with much posturing, theorymachine and smacktalk… all things I am quickly learning are essential to any successful day of gaming. The highlight of the morning was John and Phil assembling the tattered ruin of John’s Skorne army after an incident with John missing a step on his way to driving over to pick me up. I hear carry cases are a good investment.
We arrived early and rather than experience the joys of corporate whorehouse coffee, we headed to a stunning greasy spoon next to the tourney location. What fallowed was one of the most interesting breakfasts I think any of us had experienced for a while. Bacon that looked like roadkill, sausages described as “mushy” by John and some rather odd brownie for the vegetarian among us (me).
After that we headed up to meet our erstwhile foes. I noticed several familiar faces (I had previously met two chaps during my time as a GW staffer at various meetings, and a certain Mr Whilleby who I knew from my store days). The setup of all tables was certainly interesting. Every table was identical, with two hills in opposite corners and four wall/trench pieces enclosing the bulk of the centre of the table. Circle was not going to have a good day (not that I saw any).
The games got underway, with Barry, Phil and myself moving tables twice due to late arrivals, thus starting ten minutes after the rest of the pack. A great start.
Game One: Mosh Pit: James/Cygnar/Hayley
Game one was against a fairly typical Hayley list. One squire, the B13, six trenchers, a full unit of sword knights plus UA, Thorn and a Stormsmith is about what I remember but there may have been more. First turn was won by James (a theme for the day) and he rammed his army into the middle of the table, stopping only to drop smoke across his lines.
I saw an opportunity as I had only smoke between my army and Hayley. I ran a jack into the smoke, dropped my feat and arced a scourge at Hayley, looking to boost both rolls. Of course, me being a total muppet meant I had forgotten about her spear and I had wasted my feat and focus for no kill. Again, a theme for the day.
The game then proceeded to be a series of Cygnar rolling backwards turns, with smoke blocking a lot of LOS and TB stopping my force. I was reduced to purging at my own Bile Thralls to kill a mere three Trenchers, still less smoke.
Me being a total spanner I was letting shots be taken against Cankerworm who was continually pushed back by gunmage captain fire (there was one of them too). Of course, some would argue he might have stealth, but I like to make it hard for myself. Or something…
Also, I had forgotten it was a 14” diameter, not radius, so had actually won two turns before time was called. Despite this, I went in to the last turn down on VPs with three Cygnar troops in the pit, including one of the B13 under smoke. I had previously popped the stormsmith with the Withershadow so was sitting on a soul, and converged on the hapless troopers with a mix of hellfire, pistol wraith fire and a timely venom arced into the B13 to ignore their smoke/stealth issues.
Victory was mine, despite having no joy with purges. Hayley lived, although I had corrosion on her for three turns and had chipped away at her. The end result was 5 SPs and 6 VPs for killing half units and solos.
The game was great, perhaps the best of the day. Victory could have gone either way, and I think we both enjoyed the challenge.
Game two: No Man’s Land: James/Menoth
Second game was against a Jack heavy Menoth list. Facing me was Severius, a choir, a revenger, two redeemers and the Blessing of Vengeance, two paladins of the wall and Vilmon.
I had just been told I had taken best painted for the day with Goreshade’s Bane Army so decided to give him a run as the –2 Arm and stealth would help chop up any Jacks that crossed my path.
Again I lost the first turn, allowing for the two Redeemers to take up position behind a trench where they stayed all day firing rockets. The two other jacks each held a flank with the trio of paladins holding the centre. The choir and Sevvy hung back singing and blessing all the jacks to boost their RAT/POW.
I advanced, spreading my troops out to minimise incoming rockets. Every turn saw both Redeemers get three focus and spam me with rocket fire that slowly whittled down numbers. I did have a Bile take three scatters and survive them all, before purging on the choir, killing all four. I had cursed the Blessing early on with Tartarus before charging in my Bane Knights (with dark shroud) who pulled both its arms off. On the other flank Tartarus and the Withershadow combined fire and melee to do the same to the Revenger. Meanwhile my Biles were advancing under fire, purging a couple of times to damage the jacks.
Highlight of the game is when Vilmon charged my Slayer (yes I took a Slayer!) but took a free strike from a Bane Knight on the way that killed him. I never even feated, but purged both the remaining Paladins and tore down the last few boxes on the Revenger, leaving no Menites in the capture zone, giving me the game.
I had scored a slightly better 10 VPs this game, leaving me with a 10SP/16VP total for the final game.
Game Three: Contested Ground: Barry/Cygnar
Yup, I faced Barry in the final. With Hayley… again. We had both scored the same VPs so faced off in a sister bitch fight to the death. (I had hoped Barry would try to outfox me with Siege but it was not to be).
Again I lost first turn and Barry advanced his Solo Merc army… I mean Cygnarans up to take cover behind the trenches (B13) and line up some shootiness with some Longunners. Aryianna and Holt covered one flank, while Eyris and Alexia covered the other. Thorn ran up the middle, arced scramble onto Canker then buggered off.
In my turn I achieved very little, running up to arc a venom at the longunners, again targeting too close to Hayley allowing it to be dispelled. You think I would learn. I also put Crippling grasp up on Thorn. Critically…
Barry’s turn saw TB come up, then a series of devastating shots that removed all my Bile Thralls bar one. Luckily he was hidden behind a wall and Barry failed to spot him. I was feeling pretty sad at this point... all those nice Gunners lined up and nothing to purge at. However, I saw an opportunity. I ran my Nightwretch up to flank the B13 lined up near Hayley, moved forward what I could and popped Denny’s feat. I had six focus left and proceeded to arc two venoms onto the near B13 who was thankfully out of range of Hayley's flipping spear. The plan was to use boosts to fry Hayley and take the game. Sadly, despite two Venoms and melting three points off the Squire and two of the B13 I managed to do a stunning two points of Damage to Hayley and put up Corrosion on her.
I was slightly sad about this and resigned to a loss. I managed to fry Thorn with some Withershadow goodness and a melee from a Deathripper, (which Barry kindly allowed me to take out of turn, that cost him badly!) Leaving his wreck on three boxes, surrounded by Withershadow.
In Barry’s turn he was sad to discover his Control Had dropped by 4”, crucially leaving some of my stuff out of TB! Also, the evil Elven hooker (sorry, Eyris), was under the withering so couldn’t charge Denny. As such he was reduced to dropping his feat and shooting up my Bonejacks to stop me arcing into Hayley. He also cunningly used his Journeyman to finish off Thorn, preventing me getting a free bonejack in my turn. Critically, he again failed to kill my Bile Thrall and took the MOV and ARC off the Nightwretch but left him alive.
In my (final) turn I gave two focus to the Nightwretch and tried to put Hayley down for good. Sadly, she was hit well, but survived with three life. I tidied up the far left flank, using Mech Thralls to kill all the risen, before purging my Bile Thralls at the incorporeal Pistol Wraith standing behind the invisible A+H with predictable results.
This gave me the game, but I still was after Hayley’s blood. I used the B13 and Denny to try to spell her off the table, claiming a long gunner in the process. Sadly the Combine needed a double six to hit her due to the trench, even with Puppet Strings I could only get a six and a five. Denny decided she too wasn’t playing and failed to put the killing blow up.
Still, I had taken two points from claiming the flanks, while Barry had scored none…
Victory was mine, in a close fought game. TB really closes down an army using Biles, that’s what I learned today… plus I hate Hayley’s spear!
Poor Barry had to face three Cryx armies in the day (Denny/Terminus/Denny), although I had faced two Hayleys.
In the end John took gold after scoring a stupid amount of VPs in the early games. I took silver and best painted and James from my first game took bronze. Not 100% about the scoring system but three games aren’t enough to really set the field. By losing to me Barry fell out of the top four despite winning his first two games which seems odd to me.
Bringing up the rear was Phil who was brought low by John and his “balanced” Skorne. Phil was (I’m told) wiping the floor with John until he failed to kill the warlock by one point. John then shredded Phil’s with a pumped up Ancestral Guardian. Such skill…
The return journey was again filled with more banter and posturing, with plenty of speculation and what ifs, before the conversation naturally turned to Battle Star and other things…
So, not a bad day all things considered. Thanks to Barry for the lift, looking forward to the riots next month…
I am now sooooo looking forward to London Riots!