GenCon!!!

Oh boy GenCon!  Yea, I skipped over the local tournament that I played the weekend before, I think it'll be alright though.  Lots happened at GenCon though with regards to Warmachine/Hordes.  Starting on Thursday when I stood in line for 2.5 hours to make sure that I was able to get ahold of a Woldwrath and the promo Druid Gone Wilder.  Picked up an IK RPG after sitting in line that long too, and those things might have been gold the way people talked about it.  That said, I'm glad I have it now, its a great book, lots of material, and the game was a lot of fun (more later on that perhaps).

Anyway, I played in Last Rites on Friday to get in a tournament and also maybe see if I could qualify for Masters.  I did not, but I did have some fun in the tournament and I did learn some more about the game as always.  Things of note, this was a 50-point SR2012, 2 lists and you're required to play each at least once.  Only other thing to note was that it was artifice killbox for ALL scenarios (this would be relevant later).

Here's the lists that I brought...

Baldur the Stonecleaver
- Megalith
- Woldwarden
- Wold Guardian
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Sentry Stone and Mannikins
Druids of Orboros
- Druid Overseer
Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers
Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers
Blackclad Wayfarer

Reinforcements:
Wold Guardian
Blackclad Wayfarer

Mohsar the Desertwalker
- Ghetorix
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Woldwarden
- Gorax
- Druid Wilder
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)
- Nuala the Huntress
Blackclad Wayfarer
Gallows Grove
Gallows Grove

Reinforcements:
Feral Warpwolf
Gallows Grove

Round 1 vs Cryx
Scenario: Incursion

Opponent's List:

Witch Coven of Gharlgast
- Deathjack
- Reaper
- Deathripper
- Skarlock Thrall
Soulhunters (max)
Soulhunters (min)
Darragh Wrathe
Withershadow Combine
Warwitch Siren

Not 100% that I have that right, but its close enough.  I chose to go with Baldur for this one thinking (wrongly) that I'd have an edge on the scenario.  I probably should have gone with Mohsar and made him deal with Pillars (and shut down arcnodes for a turn).  Anyway, much of the problem here, which I've been having in general, is that the Coven was back on the last millimeter of space at the edge of the kill box and I had no chance of getting to them.  My dice were also pretty terrible in this game if I remember correctly.  I had a pretty decent grip on the game for a bit, but eventually the soulhunters were able to kill off more than I wanted, and the amount of Ghostly and Incorporeal just made Baldur's feat not effective enough.  Either way, didn't get a win here.

Round 2 vs Khador
Scenario: Bunkers

Opponent's List:
Harkavich
- Conquest
- Conquest
Greygore Boomhowlers & Co (max)
Mechaniks
Mechaniks
Reinforcements:
Kayazy + UA

Seeing that his other list was Sorcha + Winterguard deathstar I figured my best bet was to go with Mohsar here to have a chance to take out the Conquests.  I don't remember a ton of this game either.  I did manage to scrap one of the Conquests with Ghetorix + WW Stalker, but somewhere along the way I was just eating a ton of time (I need to remember to flip the clock for Tough rolls) AND at some point my opponent was playing on my clock either because I didn't hit it or we missed something, or the clock messed up.  It ended when Mohsar went for a super long shot assassination with seconds left and didn't get it.  Deathclocked.

Round 3 vs Cygnar
Scenario: Restoration

Opponents List:
Lieutenant Allister Caine
- Sentinel
- Centurion
Gun Mages + UA
- Hunter
Stormblades + UA
- Stormclad

Another list I'm not sure if I got completely right, I should just stop saying that though because I know I'm never going to remember any of them 100% at this point.  I don't remember what his other list was either, he announced before I showed him anything that he was playing Caine.  Looking at it I realized that Mohsar's pillars would wreck havoc with this list because its nothing but low pow ranged attacks and melee.  I put prey up on the Stormblades (should have been the Gun Mages probably but I was kind of panicked from some outside information I got and nearly forgot).  He went first, pressed forward.  I went, moved up to wear my Tharn were going to do a number on the stormblades, and put the pillars out to block the rest.

After this, he did something I didn't expect, he basically completely backed up his army on the side that I pressed, and teleported Caine back quite a ways.  I looked at it, and I realized that I would be able to easily kill his objective with Ghetorix and he had nothing in the zone.  So I did that, jammed the zone with pillars and models so he couldn't get back in.  Then I looked up when he started his turn and remembered everything is kill box and thought that Caine was back quite a ways.  He was, about 8" from the back.  So I win via Killbox, kind of a hollow victory, but thems the breaks.

Round 4 vs Retribution
Scenario: Guantlet

Opponents List:
Kaelyssa
- Phoenix
- Banshee
- MHSF + UA
- Mage Hunter Assassin
- Eiryss1
- Dawnguard Sentinels + UA

He told me he was locked into this list, but gave me the impression its what he'd have preferred to play. I decided to put Baldur down because I wanted to play him again and I figured with the scenario in the middle the rough terrain would be good on the feat.  Lots of back and forth, but on about the 3rd turn I noticed he moved Kaelyssa up to within 2" of a forest that was just naturally on the table already.  I still had Megalith inside of some unbroken Shifting Stones, so he got into melee with her, animus, hits her twice, dead.  He acknowledged that he forgot to hit the other shifting stone's unit and I think he'd planned to and just forgot.  Anyway, dead elf chick.

Not enough (obviously) to get into Masters.  Not a big deal, I had a good time, learned a lot.  I got in some Iron Arena games that were fun, all theme forces that day for extra skulls.  Saw some of Hardcore and Masters.  I have to say that one of the big things that I like is that people were not just playing the things the forums tell them to play.  The more and more I look at this game, the more I think there's only so much wisdom on the forums.  I'm willing to read and hear stuff, but when I see top players like Flanzer playing the Mountain King, or Kaya1 being one of 2 lists that was doing a great job, I get pretty excited that this game is really more about knowing the rules available to you than about playing the "best" models.

Cassius vs Old Witch - 75 Points

Well, first time I ever played a game above 50 points.  I'm not going to get completely into it, but basically he brought Kayazy, Doom Reavers, Conquest, Spriggan, Mechanics, Greylords and a few other things.  I had this list in tow...

Cassius the Oathkeeper
- Wurmwood, Tree of Fate
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Feral Warpwolf
- Woldwarden
- Gorax
- Druid Wilder
Tharn Wolf Riders (max)
Tharn Ravagers (max)
- Tharn Ravager Chieftain
- Tharn Ravager Shaman
Wolves of Orboros (max)
- Wolves of Orboros Chieftain and Standard
Wolf Lord Morraig
Gallows Groves x3
Farrow Bonegrinders (min)
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones

I think I'm just going to bullet point some highlights and observations on this one

• Got the win on assassination after the Old Witch was way on my side of the table after killing 11 of my 12 Wolves of Orboros.  She got too close though, as I was able to cycle Prey to her, got 2 throws on her from my cav and then moved a Gallows Grove close enough to double Stranglehold (had enough fury to do 3 of them).  Morraig would have gotten one more shot at her potentially.
• Tharn Ravagers survived decently well against the Doom Reavers that jammed them.  Happily surprised by this.
• I feated on turn one to try to get the stuff safely up the table, this will need to be evaluated going forward to see if its the right play
• At 75 points there was a LOT of models on the table, to the point that things were ridiculously bunched up and I felt like I couldn't maneuver.
• Wurmwood gets stealth pretty easily, and gets souls pretty easily, so I'm definitely starting to see that the horror stories of having to babysit the tree are a little unfounded
• I really, really want to get some time in to practice more with the Circle cavalry.  Its got all of the things to make it good, I just need to put them together.
• My warbeasts did basically nothing in this game.
• Conquest wasn't too scary really, the game didn't really go long enough to see if it'd have earned its steep points back or not.
• It'd probably be good to have some better hellmouth targets available.  WoO, Bonegrinders aren't bad.  Shifting Stones can be used in some cases too I suppose.  I may have to see if I can find room for a Sentry Stone in the list though, that might be a good move.
• Doom Reavers are a pain in the ass to deal with.  Yes that gets its own line.
• Whatever the Conquest's version of covering fire is called, it seems to be fine against things with decent ARM and/or extra hit boxes.  I'm glad I didn't have to try to sneak some Bloodtrackers or the like through them though