GMI Warmachine Steamroller 2015 Tournament
I learned that Steamroller Tournament strength of schedule is determined by 3 factors. The first factor is your Win/Loss record. The next factor is how many control points you scored during your matches. The final is how many points of enemy models you killed.
Since Andrew and I were the only players that won on scenario and scored 5 control points, we were the #1 and #2 seed and faced each other in the next match. Andrew is a very experienced player but mentioned that he hasn't played competitively in a while. He brought a very strong control army with eKreuger and another hit and run style anti-infantry army with pKreuger.
After everyone submitted lists I saw what Andrew brought and I knew that was going to be the toughest match up for me and I did not want to play against him unless I had to.
Before our match, Andrew and I talked about our lists and not wanting to get List Locked. (You must play both your lists at some point during the tournament) Knowing that he was going to be the hardest match up for me in the tournament I decided to go with my stronger list and play Butcher 3 while Andrew gambled and played pKreuger hoping to save eKreuger for the finals.
Kill Stroked (35 Points)
Warcaster: Butcher 3 (-4)
Warcaster Unit: War Argus x2 (+2)
Warcaster Attachment: War Dog (+1)
Warjack: Ruin (+10)
Warjack: Juggernaut (+7)
Unit: Kayazy Assassins (+8)
Unit Attachment: Kayazy Assassin Underboss (+2)
Unit: Widowmakers (+4)
Solo: Widowmaker Marksman (+2)
Solo: Saxon Orrik (+2)
Solo: Ogrun Bokur (+3)
VS.
pKreuger (35 Points)
Warcaster: pKreuger (-5)
Warbeast: Warpwolf Stalker (+10)
Warbeast: Feral Warpwolf (+9)
Warbeast: Gorax (+4)
Unit: Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers (+5)
Unit: Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers (+5)
Unit: Shifting Stones (+2)
Unit Attachment: Stone Keeper (+1)
Solo: Blackclad Wayfarer (+2)
Solo: Gallows Groves (+1)
Solo: Gallows Groves (+1)
He beats me on threat range and has answers for my high DEF Stealth infantry but I beat him on big bald fat guys that hit hard.
End of Round 1
Andrew won the roll and went first and set up on the side with the linear obstructions. He moved both his units of Woldstlakers in a straight gun line and set up for my advance. The double Gallows groves move into position for Arc Noding while the Stones set up to use Shifting. His Stalker and Feral Warpwolf stay back and wait to be Shifted.
What I didn't realize was that Shifting says "within" and not "completely within" so the actual distance of placement is not 8" but more like 9.5" which is much scarier.
On my turn I move my army, cast Energizer so my battlegroup moves 3 extra inches and get ready to dominate the flag on turn 2. I keep Ruin behind Juggernaut and hope that the Warpwolf Stalker will take the bait. I know once I can trade for one of his Warbeasts, I'm in a really good spot to attrition.
I position my Kayazy and Widowmakers in a way that I feel would best protect them from pKreugers feat but I was sorely mistaken. The Widowmakers do some work and killed 4 Woldstalkers.
Round 2
On Turn 2, Andrew moves his unit of Woldstalkers on the right side of the picture so they can pop shots at Ruin. With Concentrated Fire they are all able to hit and do quite a bit of damage to him. He then casts Primal from the Gorax on the Warpwolf Stalker and ports him 9.5" into Reach range with Ruin. He makes quick work of him and also cripples both of Juggernaut's arms. I'm a bad spot but I still feel like if I can take out the Warpwolf Stalker I have a shot.
Andrew then pops pKreuger's feat and decimates my Kayazy. As you can see from the picture above, I spread my Kayazy out and feel like they're safe but I didn't realize that the 3" AOE templates didn't have to be centered on models but instead placed anywhere he wanted. He was able to wipe out 7 Kayazy and all 4 Widowmakers. Luckily the Kayazy passed their command check.
I suffered mass casualties so I had to shift gears. I charged Butcher into the center of the pile of Woldstalkers and Feral Warpwolf and cast Impending Doom and pulled everything in. I then used Flashing Blade and wiped out 4 Wold Shrimp, a Blackclad Wayfarer, and the Warpwolf Stalker. I popped my feat and got back to camping 6 focus bringing his defensive stats to DEF 14 ARM 24.
I then decide to use Energizer to place Butcher base to base with the flag but unfortunately the action was challenged because Butcher was inside a wreck maker that counted as rough terrain. A judge was called over to mediate. Energizer states that he gets Pathfinder on activation he charges. I felt that, since he charged, he had Pathfinder for his entire activation but it was ruled that he did not. It's ok though, I was still able to get a War Argus next to the flag to get 1 point.
I gave up the safety of Butcher and sent out the Ogrun Bokur and the War Dog to contest my friendly flag in future turns. I knew that I was down in attrition with my Juggernaut's crippled arms and if I could just play 1 step ahead of Andrew I could pull away with a scenario win.
MARK: 1 - ANDREW: 0
Round 3
Andrew was successful with Electro Leap attacks from the Feral Warpwolf attacks that had Lightning Tendrils and focused on clearing out the Kayazy's threat and killed all but 2. He used then used his Gallows Grove and moved it based to base with my flag and gained a point. I didn't think this was legal because the Gallows Grove shouldn't be able to control a flag but couldn't specifically find the rules. Andrew said it could and confirmed with the Press Ganger and was able to get a point. I was fine with it.
Later I found out that Immobile models cannot control zones and that Gallows Groves were in fact Immobile. It was my fault because I used the word "Construct" when asking Joe, the Press Ganger, instead of the word "Immobile" which he confirmed that Constructs could control flags.
It was all good. Andrew had to move pKreuger out of the way because the 2 Kayazy had a shot at assassinating him. This made it so that he couldn't dominate on his turn. He also used the Gallows Grove as an Arc Node and used Tornado to Throw the Juggernaut into Butcher knocking both of them down. The Juggernaut took some more damage but luckily Butcher did not.
MARK: 1 - ANDREW: 1
On my turn I played it safe and just moved everyone to guard Butcher. I felt that killing him would be the only way Andrew had a chance to win now that I controlled the board. I put my crippled Juggernaut in front of my army with the War Argi behind him and finally positioned Butcher behind everything camping 6 focus.
I used the remaining Kayazy to kill the Gallows Grove that was controlling the flag and positioned the Ogrun Bokur and War Dog on opposite sides of the flag in hopes that Andrew wouldn't be able to kill both in one turn.
At the end of the round I killed 1 shrimp and leader and dominated my zone for another 2 points.
MARK: 3 - ANDREW: 1
End of the Game
There was a ruin terrain that separated the Feral Warpwolf and Butcher which meant it was almost impossible for the Feral to reach him even with Lightning Tendrils. He was able to easily wipe out the Ogrun Bokur but the War Dog miraculously toughed.
There was nothing much left for him to do. He positioned pKreuger safely and toed the zone instead of Dominating his flag. It would have given him 1 more point but ultimately there was nothing he could do to contest his friendly flag.
MARK: 3 - ANDREW: 2
My resilient War Dog was able to get up and contest my friendly flag and the War Argi, with Gang were able to wipe out the Gallows Grove that was contesting my enemy flag.
I ended my turn with Butcher dominating which put me up to 5 control points for the scenario win. Khador Victory!
MARK: 5 - ANDREW: 2
Final Thoughts
This was definitely a very stressful match for me. There seemed to be a lot of things that didn't go my way which was ok because they didn't change the outcome of the game.
The Charge/Energizer/Pathfinder ruling was my fault because I didn't do everything in the proper order. I would have been able to do it if but just needed to do it before my initial attack. I would have had to change the order of my activation to make it work. I would have needed to Charge first, kill everything with the Flashing Blade spell, then Energizered because technically I would have still been in my charge activation and had Pathfinder. It didn't change much because I was still able to get 1 control point with the War Argi which was all that mattered.
The second rules that went wrong was the Gallows Grove that controlled a flag. It was my fault again because I asked the Press Ganger if constructs could control and he said yes when I should have asked if Immobile models could control. Again, this didn't change the game outcome but it did change the tempo and forced me to play more offensively instead of defensively.
I learned a lot during this game because I was able to play an experienced and fierce competitor which I really enjoyed. It was stressful and I was exhausted after it but I think it helped me become a better Warmachine player.
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