Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Wold Guardian
- Wold Guardian
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)
- Nuala the Huntress
Warpborn Skinwalkers (max)
Gallows Groves x2
Grayle the Farstrider
- Ghetorix
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Winter Argus
Tharn Ravagers (max)
- Tharn Ravager Chieftain
Lord of the Feast
Gallows Grove
Krueger the Stormwrath
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Feral Warpwolf
- Gorax
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Blackclad Wayfarer
Tharn Wolf Riders (max)
I used a Blackclad and Scarsfell Griffon as my reinforcements for all of the lists. I'm glad for the change that I've heard coming from the beta for SR2013 that all scenarios will be able to handle reinforcements and they'll be an option for the entire tournament or not. I like the change.
Round 1 vs Cryx
My opponent of course had all of his lists available to him. I believe he was running Deneghra1, Skarre2 and Gaspy3. He decided to run with Gaspy3 I guess because he thought that the feat would be powerful against Circle. I think this was the list that he threw down.
Asphyxious the Hellbringer
- Vociferon
- Cankerworm
- Nightmare
Mechanithralls (min)
- Brute Thrall x2
Mechanithralls (min)
- Brute Thrall x2
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Withershadow Combine
Warwitch Siren
Pistol Wraith x2
I'm not going to break it down by each turn, just a brief over view. The scenario was Close Quarters so a scenario win was unlikely to happen here. I played Morvahna here thinking no matter which of his lists that I could deal with his infantry and the Wold Guardians deal well with anything else. My opponent hadn't played this list much from the looks of things, so he was asking a lot of questions and I'd say using up a lot of clock time. He had a point in one of the turns where his Pistol Wraiths both missed my Wold Guardian needing anything but snakeeyes. Morvahna was attritioning the hell out of Gaspy's army here. Eventually my opponent ran out of time and I still was in a good position.
Round 2 vs Trollbloods
The scenario was Bunkers, so we have reinforcements for this. My opponent is running Doomy1, Doomy2 and I think Grissel1. Looking at the lists I would probably have preferred to play Morvahna, but definitely didn't want to be locked into a list later on. He's already played Doomy1 who'd be a bad matchup for her. Looking at it I decide to drop the Grayle list. He goes with Doomy2, who I've never faced. List looks like this I think...
Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia
- Dire Troll Mauler
- Earthborn Dire Troll
- Mulg the Ancient
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (max)
- Stone Scribe Elder
Janissa Stonetide
Whelps
Reinforcements:
Trollkin Champion Hero
Trollkin Runeshapers
This game was honestly over very quickly mostly because I didn't take Goad into account nor in general the speed with which Doomy was going to deal with me. I charged my Ravagers at his beasts behind the wall Janissa made, putting 2 of them right there and the rest in charge range. This didn't work out at all because of Goad. Also cleared a path and Ghetorix bit the dust to Mulg. After that some stuff happened, but not of much consequence. I get tabled. Definitely need more time playing against more trolls. Also, I think after this bad streak with Grayle that he's going on the bench again for a while.
Round 3 vs Retribution of Scryah
The scenario is Restoration for this round. My opponent is not locked out of a list, and has Rahn, Rayvn and Kaelyssa I think (Rayvn might have been Ossyan). He's played everyone but Rahn. At this point I haven't played Krueger1 so I'm looking and against either Ossyan/Rayvn I definitely want Morvahna. In general Kaelyssa doesn't worry me a ton, but he hasn't played Rahn so I'm banking on the fact that Rahn will be the pic, so Krueger1 is the right call. He does in fact pick Rahn
Adeptis Rahn
- Phoenix
- Chimera
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr
House Shyeel Battle Mages x2
Dawnguard Sentinels (max)
House Shyeel Magister
Artificer
That may not be 100% accurate, but its something like that. I win the die roll, Wolf Riders prey one of the units of battle mages. Terrain helps me out quite a bit here. Standard move up, throw up Lightning Tendrils on the Wolf Riders, Deflection, Skyborne, and we're off. He moves everything up, runs his Chimera close, starts throwing out Chain Blasts, one of which takes out my blackclad and just misses Krueger. Another puts a little damage on the Feral. This was also the turn that he feated, so those were putting up some pretty solid damage and hitting accurately. Battle mages put a little damage on my wolf riders, but ARM 16 helped keep them alive. Everything else moved up, and most importantly the only thing in the zone was the Chimera.
At this point I'm going first, I evaluate the chances that I can get a scenario point on his turn to be pretty high, and I know for certain that I could get it on my turn. Wolf Riders deal with the unit of Battle Mages they prey'd, they use their cav movement to tie up the Phoenix. Shifting Stones move the Feral, its going to need reach. Gorax Primals him up. Krueger goes, feats and puts the templates between the Sentinels and the zone, being that they take more damage moving through than while they're in DLine. Casts Lightning Tendrils on the Feral, puts up Lightning Strike on the Stalker, and here we go. Stalker takes out the Chimera, runs back. Feral takes out the objective without too much problem.
After this basically he was trapped by the templates and decided not to try to run the sentinels anywhere, the Phoenix combusted and then couldn't move. The other unit of battle mages couldn't get through some of the terrain that was there. So he gives up a point on his turn, I only need 2 to win, so that's it.
Round 4 vs Cryx
Yup, Cryx again. This time I think I'm looking at Gaspy3, Denny1 and Goreshade1 though I'm honestly not 100% on that. He has all of his options available, as do I. Worked in round one, so I opted to go with Morvahna again, he chooses Denny. The scenario is Incursion, so the fact that I won the die roll seems pretty huge. Here's what I remember of his list...
Warwitch Deneghra
- Deathripper x2
- Nightmare
- Skarlock Thrall
Bane Thralls (max)
- Bane Thrall Officer and Standard
Pistol Wraith
Gorman di Wulfe
Darragh Wrath
Game starts as you'd think. Bloodtrackers fill up the middle of the table, Regrowth and Harvest go up. Everything else mosey's on up the table. His turn was more or less the same on his side with things getting into position. One thing to note, and we didn't realize it until about turn 3 was that he forgot to put the Skarlock on the table. Obviously once so much stuff is moved around can't go back, so that sucked for him (though not sure it ultimately decided the outcome). Middle flag disappears.
Now it gets interesting. I camped a Gallows Grove on each flag on the outside, Bloodtrackers are killing stuff, other things are moving up. More Banes die, eventually the bloodtrackers become crip grasped which of course sucks, but fortunately aiming they're still killing banes. He leaves me an opening though to teleport my Guardian to the node that was contesting the flag on the right, I smash it into the ground with impunity and have the guardian camp the flag. I get a point. His next turn a bunch of stuff happens, a couple of Skinwalkers died, bloodtrackers were decimated.
This is when I look at the table though. I've got 3 skin walkers, like 2 bloodtrackers, both beasts, full stones, and that grove is still camping the flag on the left. He also had to reposition the node over there, so it was easily in teleport range of the other guardian. On my right I need to kill a Pistol Wraith and i think one bane thrall. Guardian, manuevers around the flag so he's still touching it and pounds the Pistol Wraith dead. Skinwalkers aren't engaged, so 2 of them charge the bane on the hill, 3rd one goes and stands right in front of Denny1. They kill the bane (first one). So then I teleport the guardian, he pushes the node out of 4" (and scraps it in 2 hits). Three control points, so I win.
Conclusion
So after the dust settled, I ended up getting 2nd place due to winning on scenario in both of those games, so that was pretty clutch. The only loss was to the guy who won the event, so I believe that gave me favorable strength of schedule and then control points gave me 2nd over the guy who didn't lose until the last round. Felt pretty good as I've been on sort of a losing streak lately.
There are some other things this has made me think more about too. First and foremost being that Morvahna is still a powerhouse caster. Yes, she definitely hates Purification and is going to have a bitch of a time (if its even possible) against that, but there are still only 4 casters in the game that do that. She's going to be back to seeing more table time with me. Grayle as I mentioned is going to get benched again for a while, I just haven't had the luck with him that I want to. Krueger1 isn't a warlock I've played a ton, but I do really like what he brings to the table. Lightning Tendrils is an amazing spell, and his ability to just wipe infantry off the table allows for me to worry less about that in list construction. Playing for 2-lists I'm not 100% that pairing him with Morvahna is the right call, but it could happen. Krueger2 also has a ton of promise because the Storm Wall spell hasn't ever been better than it is now.
