Full Circle - Episode 42

This week I talk about Minion Solos and Units that would be good to play in themes, especially Secret Masters.  Discussion covers Farrow Bonegrinders, Gatorman Bokor and Swamp Shamblers, Gremlin Swarm, Brun & Lug and of course Wrong Eye & Snapjaw.

Full Circle - Episode 41

I get into discussion on WTC lists this week!  Check it out!

Full Circle - Episode 40

Lot of changes on the CID are discussed in this episode, including several Wolds, Blackclad Stoneshaper, Bradigus and then the new model the Wold Wight!

WiTC 2017

This weekend I had the pleasure to attend the WiTC near Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Team events are always a lot of fun, and this one had a unique format using 3-person teams, but where there is an interesting pairing process that is reminiscent of the WTC format, but adjusted to make sense for having the smaller teams.  I decided to pair up with a couple local pals of mine who opted to bring Convergence (Lucant/Mother) and Cygnar (Haley2/Haley3), and with me playing Circle I picked the cheesy name of C-Faction^3 (pronounced see-faction-cubed).

Leading into this event was a pretty crazy time as I recently bought a house and have been working on that and moving in and such.  As a result I definitely didn't get an opportunity to practice as much as I wanted.  When preparing for the event I started to think of the trends of what has been out there and what I've been playing, combined with the new SR2017.  I had played a Krueger2 quite a bit in quite a few different iterations.  One of the big things for him is that with Telekinesis, Gallows and Loki the list is able to really create situations where there is an answer to warjacks, but also answers a lot of mixed composition lists.  What I did not feel like it was good into is probably something like Ghost Fleet or any really infantry-heavy that Devourer's Host would be better.  Additionally having access to an armor debuff as well as a lot of forests made it seem like a natural fit.

So, here are the lists that I played:

Circle Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] The Devourer's Host

(Wurmwood 1) Wurmwood, Tree of Fate [+27]
 - Gorax Rager [7]
 - Warpwolf Stalker [19]
 - Warpwolf Stalker [19]
Tharn Ravager Shaman [0(5)]
Tharn Ravager Shaman [0(5)]
Death Wolves [9]
Shifting Stones [3]
Shifting Stones [3]
Tharn Ravagers (max) [16]
 - Tharn Ravager Chieftain [5]
Tharn Ravagers (max) [16]
 - Tharn Ravager Chieftain [5]

Circle Army - 75 / 75 points

(Krueger 2) Krueger the Stormlord [+27]
 - Ghetorix [21]
 - Loki [19]
 - Megalith [20]
 - Pureblood Warpwolf [17]
Gremlin Swarm [3]
Druids of Orboros [12]
 - Druid of Orboros Overseer [4]
Shifting Stones [3]
Shifting Stones [3]

Now, I had managed to get in a decent number of games with similar Krueger2 lists ahead of time, and a few with that exact list, so I did feel decent about playing him.  The Wurmwood list on the other hand I was not able to get in any actual games in advance for that.  I figured it would still be ok, I've played Wurmwood, I've played Devourer's Host, and the battlegroup as well so I went with it.

I'm not going to go over the pairing process, you can go to www.atcwmh.com and read the player's packet if you're interested in more detail.  I do want to do my best to step through the day as I played it.  Not promising that I'll document every single play, but I'll try to talk about what I remember from the round, how it went, my thoughts on the matchup and so forth.

Round 1 vs Fyanna2

The first scenario is Breakdown and my opponent presents me with Fyanna2 and Lylyth2.  Having never met this player I am unable to assess anything about which list I think he'll choose nor his skill level.  Having more reps in with Krueger2, and figuring that he has the tools to deal with each of them I go ahead and select him.  As the title of this section suggests he selects Fyanna2.  One important note about his list is that he's added a unit of Hex Hunters in place of another beast in the list, but otherwise its pretty standard.  I lose the die roll and he has me going second.

What I decide to do is have my Druids across from his Hex Hunters because the Hex Hunters should have a really hard time dealing with them and then I can start to score in that zone potentially if I can clear, or at the very least I prevent him from scoring.  Then I deploy my battlegroup more to the right.  There is also a building in the center of the table.  In hindsight I should actually have skewed more to the left with he Hex Hunters, easily wiped them out with some Lightning Storms and then started to slide back to the right throughout the game.

He moves up pretty aggressively since he has fast models and is going first.  I move up somewhat aggressively, but stay in a position where he can't really put anything into me.  His ranged attacks basically all end up short in the rebuttal, but he puts everything into zones and Fyanna feats camping three while toeing the central zone.  

He has Fyanna so close that at this point I realize that he's pretty inexperienced in the Circle matchup, but even under feat its pretty do-able to assassinate Fyanna.  I teleport Megalith up so that he's within 5" of Fyanna, use Undergrowth, and boost to hit a TK ... but I get triple 1s.  She dodges out.  So now we go back to plan A which was to use Krueger's feat in rebuttal to her feat, which I do while touching the building.  That pushes everything out of the middle, slowing almost everything but some of the Hex Hunters.  Battlegroup moves up protectively and I score a point.

His turn plays out sort of oddly, he's able to kill Megalith but because of the fury situation the turn before Fyanna is only on 2 fury and he elects not to cut for some reason.  He does some things with some of the beasts, but Fyanna is about 11" or so away from Ghetorix, but there is a model and building in the way.  Krueger flies over the building, TKs her back around, then Shifting Stones place Ghetorix so he's in her back arc.  Warp Murderous and that's the end of Fyanna even with two transfers.

My opponent was a really nice fella and definitely said that he only knew what Circle did from reading about it and hadn't ever really played against them.  Quite the learning experience for him.  The rest of my team are able to win their games so we go up 1-0 as a team with 3 wins.

Round 2 vs Lylyth3

Another round, another Legion matchup.  We're on The Pit II this round which is a fine scenario for either of my lists.  Honestly, I think all of the scenarios are fine for my lists, but I digress.  I think for a bit that I can probably play Krueger2 into Lylyth3 even though I don't really love it, but his other list is Thagrosh1 which prompted me to think that Wurmwood having access to RFP via Snacking on my warbeasts and Hellmouth would be good there while I had plenty of answers to his beasts.  He drops Lylyth.

I believe this time I won the die roll and opted to go second so that I can get a side that is barely advantageous and also score first potentially.  I position my battlegroup so that I basically have a Stalker poised to go into either zone and my Gorax more centrally to support either side. Units are central and a bit more to the side too (but mostly still near the circle).  He moves up pretty far, I move up about where I think I can with my beasts, making sure one of the Stalkers can get on the objective the following turn.

On his turn, basically he tries to see what work he can do with his guns, I lose a few Ravagers on my right side which gives me some souls as well as some Vengeance.  He tries to kill some of them on the other side as well, but dice don't play as nicely.  He's also barely contested any of the zones, the zone on my left is only contested with the objective and on the right only with a Hellion & Sorceress.  My play is first I clear out the zone on the right, and I put the Stalker into it so I know I'll score that.  I use the stalker on the other side to kill the objective off.  My Ravagers nearly kill an Angelius in the middle.  Wurmwood is sort of near the back of the zone, feats, uses a Stranglehold to kill the nearly dead Angelius, and casts a Rapid Growth.  Death Wolves run up.

Now, not necessarily going to go through all of this, but he makes an assassination attempt that ends up with Wurmwood on 2 boxes and 1 fury.  Had I planned smarter I should have had my Death Wolves all 2" + base (or close to) away from Wurmwood and there would never have been any landing spots whatsoever for any of his beasts.  He does put 3 souls on the tree though and ends up honestly coming pretty close.  Tharn making tough checks a time or two helps a lot, but his feat also helped him alot too.

He puts a few token models into the zones, but I'm able to clear pretty easily and get the win.  Another great opponent and a fun game for sure.  Definitely seeing how you have to be able to play a lot of the table in SR2017 and I do think going second is working out pretty well.  I do feel that having access to a list where you won't necessarily have to stay in any sort of central brick is going to be a boon.  We 3-0 this round again, and go to 2-0 as a team.

Round 3 vs Harkevich

I want to start by saying that this was the one round where I failed as a captain because I should have known to give the Khador matchup to the Convergence player on my team who should have had a better matchup into it.  I thought he'd be good into the Retribution matchup I gave him, but in hindsight it would have been a lot better to put me into that match and him into this one.  However, mistakes were made.

The scenario this round is Recon II and I'm still feeling like I can hopefully pick off a jack or two per round, use my warrior models to delay and try to look for scenario wins where I can get them.  I opt to go second so I can have a side.  His list has sufficient Kodiaks, so I don't have many good options to see his jacks much of the game.  We both move up on turn one.  On turn 2 he tries to drift a magic AOE at my Gremlin Swarm, fails.  I decide to setup so Krueger can score the flag on the right, and I can place Loki so that I can hook pull a Juggernaut in, kill it and TK Loki backwards ... except that Loki rolled a 3 for damage on the throw and I don't do it.  So I pull him back, but that prevents me from scoring that zone and this will just be the theme of the rest of this matchup.

After this I'm hoping that I can counterfeat to blunt the alpha.  He does feat, I believe I still lose Loki in the situation, even though I tried to put some Druids in the way.  I do go ahead and counter feat and I was able to clear out the left zone using the couple remaining druids and Megalith, but I messed up remembering to put a Shifting Stone in the way so I end up pushing one of the jacks into the zone.  I still score the flag that Krueger is on I believe, but that is it.

On his turn, even with the SPD penalty he's able to kill my Pureblood, Megalith and I think the remaining Druids, while surrounding Ghetorix with 4 heavies.   He had to use Jump Start to turn some of the jacks around and stand them up though, so Harkevich is on 2 focus is all.  My options don't look good, but Ghetorix is undamaged.  So, I decide I have to take some free strikes to get an assassination and 3 TKs.  I hit all the TKs that I need (needed a hard 7 on one of them).  Then Ghetorix charges the Juggernaut I had to move (because I needed a charge target).  One of the freestrikes hits and he rolls a 12 on his three dice to the 5 column which takes out my spirit, effectively meaning I have no chance.  If I lose any other column I'm ok because of Regeneration, and then he's hitting on 5s at dice + 3 which means with 4 attacks I should be alright.  But alas.

This is a matchup I haven't played nearly enough, certainly not with Krueger, which is already probably an uphill fight (ask any Circle player).  This one is particularly tough because of the clouds that the Kodiaks allow for, especially when the LOS blocking feature in the middle is a building rather than a forest or something else that can be passed through.  I think I could have played it differently and won, but my opponent did all of the right things and was again a good opponent, even with what was a minor dose of sodium from me.  Haley2 defeats the Coven, but Lucant was not able to chew through the Retribution list so we lose this round sitting at 2-1 as a team.

Round 4 vs The Child

I'm finally going to get a game into Grymkin! He has King of Nothing and The Child, both in Dark Menagerie.  I start looking at Krueger2 first thinking my normal thoughts that he's strong on scenario and should be able to pick apart his heavies, then I remember that Crabbits en masse are going to pretty much screw over my ability to use Loki effectively.  In hindsight, I probably could have used well placed TKs, Druid pushes and the feat to make it work, but it felt like he didn't have a ton of answers to Wurmwood either.  The scenario is Spread the Net so I feel good about the scenario game that I have.  I go with Wurmwood, he selects The Child as eluded to.  Arcana selected in addition to Wrath are Ruin and Ill Omens.  Ruin is definitely going to be something I have to play around, but Ill Omens he realizes isn't going to be as good for him as he would have liked due to a small amount of warrior models.  I still end up going second, but I believe its due to losing the die roll.

I setup similar to how I did in round 2 where I have a Stalker preparing to go into either of the rectangles, units ready to sit in the middle, and battlegroup central.  This is particular helpful to have this list because of something else I'm realizing, which is that you want a solo who can sit on your flag so you're free to have your Warlock be wherever you need it to be.  In this case too, I definitely realize that I have an advantage in this matchup because my infantry collect corpses, which means that his Death Knell does not.  Anyway, the first round is us moving up like you'd expect.  I don't even move Wurmwood from where he is on the AD line.  I do use him and Cassius to kill a Gremlin Swarm that was near more of his beasts than the others, thinking I'll get the model or he'll waste an arcana, and it was the former.

On his round 2 he puts a solo on his flag, and starts trying to kill some of the Ravagers.  He gets a few, enough to give me a soul or two and some Vengeance basically.  Additionally he's only got a couple of models in his rectangle.  On my turn I realize I'm never going to score the middle, so I just put the Stalker into my zone on the right, using the Tharn over there to try to put some work into some Crabbits and other things.  On the left, I use the Shaman to give out Magic Weapons to the Tharn unit he's babysitting and he goes on that flag.  I use Wurmwood to put Curse of Shadows onto the Skin & Moans that is in the zone after he uses Ruin to stop one of the attempts.  Ravagers kill off two more of the Gremlin Swarms, and don't do as much damage to the Skin & Moans as I'd like.  So instead of sending in the Stalker to finish off and sprint out, I decide to Primal him and make sure the deed is done.  He kills it, giving me a turn where I score 3.

On his turn he's able to clear out some more Ravagers (all but one on the right I believe), put a Gremlin Swarm on his flag so he can score that and contest all of the other zones except for my flag.  So we go to 4-1 in my favor on points.  I assess the situation, and honestly he isn't able to contest nearly hard enough and I basically only need 2 more points than him.  I kill his Gremlins with a spell off the flag, after I cleared out the light beast (I think) in my zone, and I run my Shaman to his flag scoring 3 more points and winning the game.

Finale

Again, another great game from one of my favorite opponents in Wisconsin (he knows who he is).  My teammate playing Convergence is able to win his game, the Cygnar player loses his game, so we end the event 3-1 as a team, and each player ending the day 3-1 which feels pretty solid.  That combined with our strength of schedule gave us 2nd place!  We also ended up winning a couple of the drawings which was nifty for sure.

Was a really excellent event run by some terrific folks and I'm really excited for ATC in January and to come back to WiTC again next summer since I believe it will be back again!

Full Circle - Episode 39

This week we had the Secret Master's theme force revealed, so I spend a solid amount of time discussing it.  I follow that up with a discussion on Druid Mist Riders which are currently a very important part of the theme force.

Full Circle - Episode 38

This week I get some discussion going on the Gallows Grove, Lord of the Feast and the humble Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew!

Full Circle - Episode 37

Lots of great information and news to talk about following Lock & Load 2017. Many tidbits to tease what's coming up for the next year!

Full Circle - Episode 36

Join me as I have a lot of discussion leading into Lock & Load 2017!

Full Circle - Episode 35

Some cavalry in this episode! I discuss Kaya the Wildheart (Kaya3), Tharn Wolf Riders and the Tharn Wolf Rider Champion!

Full Circle - Episode 34

First time trying a new concept, I show on the table top a few tactics for the Celestial Fulcrum as well as talk about the finalized changes from the CID as they have just gone live!

Full Circle - Episode 33

Discussion on some of the changes to the Privateer Press release cycle followed up by talking about some topics from the Circle Facebook group.  Finally ending with a discussion on the Gnarlhorn Satyr.

Full Circle - Episode 32

On this episode I talk about CiD briefly. Take a journey into answers to heavy spam and Caine3 and a few other viewer questions. Maybe some theory discussion for the future as well!

Full Circle - Episode 31

The recently announced changes to how Champions, Masters and Iron Gauntlet will work in the SR2017 season are discussed.  After that I talk about how the MuseOnCon event went for me!

Full Circle - Episode 30

I discuss the imminent MuseOnCon, what I'm looking to play and I go into quite a bit of depth on #KruegerHill.

Full Circle - Episode 29

In this episode I discuss both Baldur the Stonecleaver (Baldur1) and Baldur the Stonesoul (Baldur2)!

Full Circle - Episode 28

On this episode I talk about a bunch of Blackclad solos, namely Blackclad Stoneshaper, Blackclad Wayfarer and Druid Wilder!

Full Circle - Episode 27

We spend most of the episode talking about the Celestial Fulcrum being in the CiD!

Milwaukee SR2016 - 5/13/2017 - Round 3 - Krueger1 vs Morghoul3

Now we head into round 3 and to begin there are three 2-0 players, myself, Brian playing Skorne and Steven playing Skorne.  So there's a pretty decent chance that I'll be playing against Skorne.  I do end up playing against Steven.  For a reminder, here are my lists:

[Theme] The Devourer's Host
(Krueger 1) Krueger the Stormwrath [+28]
 - Ghetorix [21]
 - Gorax Rager [7]
Bloodweaver Night Witch [4]
Bloodweaver Night Witch [4]
Tharn Ravager Shaman [0(5)]
Tharn Ravager Shaman [0(5)]
Tharn Ravager White Mane [0(5)]
Death Wolves [9]
Tharn Bloodweavers [8]
Tharn Bloodweavers [8]
Tharn Ravagers (max) [16]
 - Tharn Ravager Chieftain [5]
Tharn Ravagers (max) [16]
 - Tharn Ravager Chieftain [5]
Bunker (Steamroller) [0]

(Kaya 2) Kaya the Moonhunter [+24]
 - Feral Warpwolf [18]
 - Ghetorix [21]
 - Loki [19]
 - Pureblood Warpwolf [17]
 - Wild Argus [7]
 - Druid Wilder [4]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Shifting Stones [3]
Fuel Cache (Steamroller) [0]

The scenario is Recon, with a forest in the middle of the table.  He has Morghoul3 and Zaadesh.  I'm a little worried about the amount of beefy warbeasts that Zaadesh has, but Morghoul having so much infantry feels pretty hard for my Kaya list to get through.  Also, Krueger completely negates his clouds from Zaadesh which is a big part of that strategy.  I go ahead with Krueger and he goes with Morghoul3 as I had expected.  Here's what I recall his list looking like:

(Morghoul 3) Dominar Morghoul & Escorts [+25]

 - Titan Cannoneer [17]

 - Titan Cannoneer [17]

 - Aptimus Marketh [5]

Extoller Soulward [3]

Paingiver Bloodrunner Master Tormentor [4]

Paingiver Bloodrunner Master Tormentor [4]

Venator Dakar [4]

Nihilators (max) [15]

Paingiver Beast Handlers (min) [5]

Paingiver Bloodrunners [9]

Paingiver Bloodrunners [9]

Venator Slingers (min) [8]

Pre-Game:

He wins the die roll and opts to go first.  I take the side of the table that gives me the better position behind the forest.

Round 1:

He moves up pretty aggressively with his infantry and gets his battlegroup into position.  Nothing too exciting, but he is up the table a LONG ways because of Apparition and AD.  When I go, I decide that the best use of my feat is going to be using the terrain and my hazards to keep most of his guys off of my guys.  I get a couple models and put the hazards in the way for him as mentioned.  Additionally I put out my normal spells and position Krueger to be in a safe place.

Round 2:

He's able to see a spot where I left too many Bloodweavers too close to a Ravager, so he is able to kill most of the Bloodweavers on my right (which is not the unit I had Lightning Tendrils on).  He does have trouble getting too many of his Bloodrunners on to too much.  He does trigger Vengeance on both units though so that's good for me.

On my turn I'm able to get a lot of work done with Vengeance moves and attacks.  Veteran Leader from the Whitemane was definitely helpful in this matchup.  After I resolve that, I'm able to use my Night Witch to clear the Bloodrunners away from my right, which frees me up to use those Ravagers to kill the objective and clear most of the zone.  I use the Bloodweavers on the left to kill a number of Nihilators and Bloodrunners.  Ravagers on that side helped as well.  I move Krueger into the zone, put up defensive spells.  I go to 3 control points as a result.

Round 3:

He needs to attrition through some more of my models and hold me off.  He's able to get the Blind spell onto my Ravagers on the right using Marketh.  Kills some models, as well as putting his two escorts, a couple solos and one of the Cannoneers into the zone.

So I need to kill basically 4-5 warrior models and the Cannoneer.  If killing them fails I do have the option probably of attempting a Tornado on the Cannoneer as well.  Ghetorix can charge and get to the Cannoneer, so I'm not to worried about that.  I use Tala and Skoll to kill off most of the models in the way, as well as a Ravager charge I believe.  Then I primal up Ghetorix and that Cannoneer is toast.

Conclusion:

I think that he probably still needed to try to play Zaadesh here and he needed to get more stuff into the zone.  That said, I'm not entirely sure that it would play out much differently since Ravagers and Bloodweavers are pretty good at killing off infantry, not to mention Krueger's feat and so forth.  We'll see if this sort of scenario play is still an option for me as SR2017 continues forward.

This is ends up being the last round as they decide to stick to having three rounds even though Brian won his matchup against Brian.  I would be playing likely something into Xerxis2 if we play it out, but this is maybe the first time I've been in Wisconsin and haven't played Brian.  They stick to 3 rounds, we go to tie breaks and I get first on SOS.  My buddy Francesc gets 3rd place as well.  Good tournament! I'd love to thank the guys for running it, clean store, great experience.

Milwaukee SR2016 - 5/13/2017 - Round 2 - Krueger1 vs Haley2

I continue documenting my tournament up in Milwaukee playing in SR2017.  For a reminder, here are my lists:

[Theme] The Devourer's Host
(Krueger 1) Krueger the Stormwrath [+28]
 - Ghetorix [21]
 - Gorax Rager [7]
Bloodweaver Night Witch [4]
Bloodweaver Night Witch [4]
Tharn Ravager Shaman [0(5)]
Tharn Ravager Shaman [0(5)]
Tharn Ravager White Mane [0(5)]
Death Wolves [9]
Tharn Bloodweavers [8]
Tharn Bloodweavers [8]
Tharn Ravagers (max) [16]
 - Tharn Ravager Chieftain [5]
Tharn Ravagers (max) [16]
 - Tharn Ravager Chieftain [5]
Bunker (Steamroller) [0]

(Kaya 2) Kaya the Moonhunter [+24]
 - Feral Warpwolf [18]
 - Ghetorix [21]
 - Loki [19]
 - Pureblood Warpwolf [17]
 - Wild Argus [7]
 - Druid Wilder [4]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Shifting Stones [3]
Fuel Cache (Steamroller) [0]

In round 2 I am faced with Steve who's brought Cygnar to the event.  He has Haley2 and Maddox and we're playing in Close Quarters.  I don't think either of my warlocks have an advantages here in the scenario specifically so no reason to analyze that.  I'm again faced with the situation that either of my lists has strengths with the Kaya list probably being a bit stronger into Haley2, and the Krueger list being stronger into Maddox.  I do think that as long as I can keep Ghetorix alive though that I have game into Haley2 with it.  I select Krueger again and he goes with Haley, his list looked like this:

[Theme] Heavy Metal

(Haley 2) Major Victoria Haley [+25]

 - Hammersmith [12]

 - Minuteman [9]

 - Stormwall [39]

 - Thorn [13]

 - Squire [0(5)]

Captain Arlan Strangewayes [0(4)]

Journeyman Warcaster [0(4)]

 - Charger [9]

Lieutenant Allison Jakes [0(4)]

 - Stormclad [18]

Pre-Game:

I'm going to have to play this game very carefully.  I need to keep Ghetorix alive as I need him to go into that Stormwall at some point, but I do think that I can do just that between Gale Winds and Spiny Growth.  Then I just have to slowly work my way through his things with my infantry.  I lose the die roll and my opponent opts to go first.

Round 1:

Standard stuff, he moves up decently aggressively.  Haley actually just runs to the position he wants.  Jakes puts out Side Kick on the Stormclad and oddly Arcane Shield doesn't go on anything.  Thorn isn't anywhere really scary either.  Haley is going for a position in the middle of the table and doesn't seem to be angling for her flag.

On my turn I move up, making sure that all of my Tharn are in Hunter's Grace.  I have a trench and some rubble in front of my deployment against, so I used those to put things like Death Wolves and Whitemane and so forth into.  I make sure to put Lightning Tendrils on one of the units of Bloodweavers and then cast Gale Winds to keep everyone relatively safe from shooting.

Round 2:

He moves up to get he Stormwall, Stormclad and Hammersmith in somewhat threatening spots.  Haley feats as well.  Some attacks go into some of my pieces because I recall that Vengeance triggers happened.

On my turn I don't do a whole lot because of Haley's feat.  I make sure to keep my Tharn in the Hunter's Grace areas.  Kill the Stormpod that was in the middle of things.  Position so that Krueger is into the Killbox but safely in some rubble.  Ghetorix puts up Spiny, Krueger made sure Gale Winds was up.  All in all not much happens that turn.  I do start to flank pretty hard with my Night Witch.

Round 3:

He comes forward, and I lose some models to he Stormclad, Stormwall and Hammersmith.  He uses the Minuteman to go in and Flak Field some of my lighter infantry as well.  Importantly he doesn't kill Ghetorix.

On my turn I decide that I need to kill the Minuteman so that he's not in the way for Ghetorix to get to Stormwall.  I'm able to kill the Minuteman with some Ravagers, put some damage on the Hammersmith as well.  Then I put some other attacks into the Stormwall before sending a Primal Ghetorix into it, and that's plenty to take him down.  Pretty ineffective against the Stormclad though.  Hammersmith takes some damage, and my Night Witches in his backline are keeping him busy.

Round 4:

Now that he doesn't have a Stormwall he's hoping the remaining heavies can do work, and they do some, but because of the bases being in the way they can only get so many attacks.  Somewhere along the way I lost Skoll to electroleaps and Tala I think after she tried to do work into the Stormwall something got her.  Thorn starts mixing it up at this point I believe and he tries to turn some stuff to take care of my Night Witches.  One of them Arlan does get, the other was missed by his Charger.

On my turn I'm able to take down the Hammersmith and Stormclad, and then put some Bloodweavers to pin Thorn down a bit.  Ghetorix kills a Tharn from the frenzy as well.  I'm getting a bit spotty trying to remember the details of exactly what happened when in this game, so I'm going to just summarize from here.  Thorn was the only thing left contesting, so I put attacks into him.  I see that I can run a Shaman to his flag to easily score that because nothing is over there, and I put a bunch of damage on Thorn too.  Then I get this idea that I can charge with Krueger which will put me on the flag and with Sustained Attack I can easily hit Thorn if I hit the 10 on the boosted MAT 5.  I do, then realize that I was winning and it was a dumb idea.

I talked after the game about what my opponent could try, but what he does do is allocate to his Charger is all, contests his own flag, tries and fails a TK attempt.  At that point I'm completely safe from retaliation.

After this, I clear my flag, and his flag to go to 3 control points, and then he's unable to contest either flag on his turn and I win.

Conclusions:

It was quite fortunate that he didn't put Arcane Shield on Stormwall as that made life much easier for sure.  I think that this list has game into Haley though, and aside from needing to do better to keep Krueger safe when there's no reason for him to be anywhere else I also should have used my Bloodweavers to flank on each side much harder.  Opponent was great fun and I really enjoyed the game!

Milwaukee SR2016 - 5/13/2017 - Round 1 - Krueger1 vs Amon

I'll use this as the introduction to this tournament, but I'm going to do individual blog entries to discuss each of my rounds at a small Steamroller 2016 tournament that I attended in Milwaukee.

My Lists:

[Theme] The Devourer's Host
(Krueger 1) Krueger the Stormwrath [+28]
 - Ghetorix [21]
 - Gorax Rager [7]
Bloodweaver Night Witch [4]
Bloodweaver Night Witch [4]
Tharn Ravager Shaman [0(5)]
Tharn Ravager Shaman [0(5)]
Tharn Ravager White Mane [0(5)]
Death Wolves [9]
Tharn Bloodweavers [8]
Tharn Bloodweavers [8]
Tharn Ravagers (max) [16]
 - Tharn Ravager Chieftain [5]
Tharn Ravagers (max) [16]
 - Tharn Ravager Chieftain [5]
Bunker (Steamroller) [0]

(Kaya 2) Kaya the Moonhunter [+24]
 - Feral Warpwolf [18]
 - Ghetorix [21]
 - Loki [19]
 - Pureblood Warpwolf [17]
 - Wild Argus [7]
 - Druid Wilder [4]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Shifting Stones [3]
Fuel Cache (Steamroller) [0]

General idea with the lists is that I should be able to handle anything as long as I make the correct choice during list selection.  I'll discuss this more later.

We have 11 players for the event and in round 1 I get paired up against David playing Protectorate of Menoth!  He's brought Amon and Kreoss3 and the scenario is Entrenched.  This puts me in an awkward position because I would probably prefer to play Kaya2 into Amon because there are 8 warjacks in the list, but the Kreoss list has 2 units of cavalry that she really doesn't want to have to deal with probably.  I feel like I probably *could* have played Kaya2 into it, but I think if its Kreoss that I want Krueger and I can figure out a way to make scenario rough on him or look for a kill.

I select Krueger and he goes ahead with Amon, this is what I recall the list looks like:

[Theme] The Creator's Might

(Amon 1) High Allegiant Amon Ad-Raza [+29]

 - Crusader [10]

 - Crusader [10]

 - Dervish [7]

 - Dervish [7]

 - Repenter [8]

 - Repenter [8]

 - Templar [15]

 - Templar [15]

 - Vigilant [9]

 - Hierophant [0(3)]

The Covenant of Menoth [0(4)]

Three Wracks [0(3)]

Vassal Mechanik [1]

Vassal Mechanik [1]

Vassal Mechanik [1]

Vassal of Menoth [3]

Vassal of Menoth [3]

Choir of Menoth (max) [6]

I win the die roll and opt to go first since taking up as much table space as I can is going to be valuable.  He takes the side that gives him an option of a wall.  There is rubble in the center of the table as well.  I deploy so that I can start moving Krueger towards my zone while flanking some infantry to get to his zone later and put as many things as I can to deny him from being able to go into my zone.  As per usual I put 3 corpse tokens on Skoll, 3 on Tala and 2 onto Caleb.

Round 1:

Since he has essentially no ranged threat and nothing that can really do anything to me on the bottom of this round, I basically just go ahead and run everything.  Krueger casts Skyborne and Lightning Tendrils onto the unit of Bloodweavers on my right, and moves up aggressively.  Everything else essentially runs to get into some good positions for the next turn.

On his turn Amon puts out Synergy and Fortify goes on one of the Templars, making that quite a tough nut to crack at ARM 23.  He positions his Templars and some of the lights such that it makes what I will call Fort Amon basically in the center of the table towards his side.  His choir also run so there's no benefit of Hymns for him next turn.

Round 2:

I move to start to get into a position where Krueger can be toeing the zone so that if he doesn't contest that I can score.  Additionally, I go ahead and charge with some of the Bloodweavers into his Crusader and Repenter (I think) on the right.  Put a little damage out there that is definitely staying because of Grievous Wounds.  Ravagers position themselves so some are in a forest for more DEF and some are trying to make it harder to get into the zone.  On the other side those Ravagers move up gingerly and the Bloodweavers over there also jam into his jacks on that side, doing basically nothing.  Ghetorix starts slowly moving up, as do the Death Wolves.

On his turn he decides that he wants to get as much work done as he can.  Amon drops Fortify and Synergy so that he can recast them for his feat.  He does so, allowing him to get a lot of focus out onto his warjacks.  He kills a Bloodweaver to start the Synergy chain, but in doing so he leaves himself on no focus.  He's able to kill a bunch of Bloodweavers and Ravagers in doing so.  He's also able to get one of the Dervishes into my zone so there'll be no scoring this turn.  He keeps Fort Amon roughly where it was, but he's a pretty decent amount of distance up the table.

Round 3:

So, I see an Amon that is on a 0 camp and is in the middle of the table, but he's on the other side of the rubble so I can't get Ghetorix on the Templar body guards in front of him let alone Amon.  I do however realize that to do work he decided to use the Hymn of Battle so I can cast spells on his warjacks.  I look at where I can position Krueger and determine that I can get a Tornado on the Fortify'd Templar.  Now, you may be asking yourself the same thing my opponent asked which is "But Chad, you can't throw it, it has Fortify on it"  If you look at Fortify it stops pushes, slams and knockdown effects, but doesn't do anything to stop a throw (aside from not being knocked down at the end of it).  Amon also can't be Knocked down, but that's ok I just need to get damage on him.  So I cast Skyborne for 2 so I can get into position, then I do manage to hit the Tornado on the Templar (I needed 3s so felt good not boosting).  I roll a distance of 2" which will push Amon forward and to my right just a little bit.  He takes a POW 13 from the collateral.  I feat to put Amon in a Lightning AOE and boost the damage on that, he's looking pretty rough.  I charge my Death Wolves, putting Skoll on him, and Tala gets to him as well burning a Corpse to survive a free strike from the other Templar.  Skoll boosts to hit and that's the end with his charge attack being plenty. My opponent did say he activated out of order on his turn so he should have had 5 less damage somewhere, but I think I'm still able to win even so.

Conclusion:

My opponent was a great guy, he was pretty surprised by Tornado working on his Templar, but that's how these things come up sometimes.  I suspect most people haven't ever seen someone cast Tornado with Krueger anyway.  Its sort of a 10-20% spell that will sometimes really win you a game, but you have to be absolutely certain when you're casting it that it will do so.  Talking with him also it sounded like he never wanted to play the Kreoss list, which had I known I probably am safe to play Kaya here instead.  Nonetheless victory to #KruegerHill in round 1! 

Steamroller @ Games Plus 4/22/2017

Its been a bit since I've done this, but I figure I'll do a quick write-up on my small local tournament this week.  First lets go on to discuss lists!

Lists:

(Kaya 2) Kaya the Moonhunter [+24]
 - Feral Warpwolf [18]
 - Ghetorix [21]
 - Loki [19]
 - Pureblood Warpwolf [17]
 - Wild Argus [7]
 - Druid Wilder [4]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Shifting Stones [3]
Fuel Cache (Steamroller) [0]

(Krueger 1) Krueger the Stormwrath [+28]
 - Ghetorix [21]
 - Gorax Rager [7]
Bloodweaver Night Witch [4]
Bloodweaver Night Witch [4]
Tharn Ravager Shaman [0(5)]
Tharn Ravager Shaman [0(5)]
Tharn Ravager White Mane [0(5)]
Death Wolves [9]
Tharn Bloodweavers [8]
Tharn Bloodweavers [8]
Tharn Ravagers (max) [16]
 - Tharn Ravager Chieftain [5]
Tharn Ravagers (max) [16]
 - Tharn Ravager Chieftain [5]
Bunker (Steamroller) [0]

I've been playing a lot of #KruegerHill and I am really liking what the list brings to Circle.  Ravagers are actually able to do a lot more work than it initially appears.  Its definitely a list where the whole is a lot better than its individual pieces.  Ravagers always end up doing a little bit more work than you'd think and always survive just a little longer than you'd think.  Not sure if this will be the final form for this list, but it has been going very well thus far.

I went with Kaya2 after playing some games with Una2 in Devourer's Host as well but not quite feeling like it was cutting it as far as I needed with armor cracking into things like warjack bricks in Khador.  It worked well for me back at the last few events so I figured I'd go ahead and stick with it.

Round 1:

I get paired up against another Circle player, and he has Baldur2 in Devourer's Host and Kromac2 in the Wild Hunt.  Both sort of interesting directions that weren't things that I had considered.  The scenario is Entrenched and in general I feel good about Ravagers being able to kill Circle beasts aside from Woldwrath perhaps and I think I'll have more scenario presence with them.  He chooses Kromac2 who does have a Woldwrath which is pretty interesting to see how that plays out.

I win the die roll, move up aggressively making sure that Hunter's Grace is keeping all of my Ravagers standing.  I move so that I can get to my zone the 2nd turn if I so wish, and I put up Gale Winds to slow down his two Purebloods and Woldwrath.  He moves up, Woldwrath does deviate a shot into my army, which triggers Vengeance on my Ravagers to my right.

Next turn I use that Vengeance to get my Ravagers in charge range of his Stalker, which ends up leaving him on 1 lift after that and a feat to try to finish.  I'm also able to charge one of his Purebloods.  Krueger toes the bottom left of my zone to threaten a score.  I'm pretty safe there from much on his side.  Ghetorix moves around the forest away from Krueger figuring that's where Woldwrath is going.  I've been flanking with Bloodweavers as well and Deathwolves have been central.

Unexpectedly, on his turn Kromac feats and charges 3 of my Ravagers which puts him pretty deep into my army.  I didn't remember that he has access to Lightning Strike still because I didn't kill the Stalker, so he casts that, but then pushes deeper into my army, engaging Krueger.  Stalker gets some kills on a couple Ravagers too, actually ends up Berserking on Kromac for a damage or two.  He pushes Woldwrath and Purebloods into me to jam as well.

Now I have Kromac in my face, but a lot of resources.  Unfortunately, Ghetorix isn't one of them because I didn't expect this situation at all.  However, I use a Tornado to throw Kromac into the Woldwrath which does a significant amount of damage.  Boost a gun shot.  Ghetorix clears the way so my Ravagers on the right will be able to charge if needed.  Death Wolves walk into melee with Kromac and that's the end.

Round 2:

I am paired up against a Legion player who brought Fyanna2 and Absylonia2.  Figuring that Ravagers actually do solid work into Legion beasts, have no problems killing his infantry, and have the best odds of riding out a feat in Fyanna's case, I go with that.  He selects Fyanna2, we're in The Pit, and I win the roll opting to go first.

Pretty standard turn 1's, I move up keeping everyone in the no-knockdown.  Bloodweavers are mostly flanking, Ravagers are a bit more inside of that and then Ghetorix and Death Wolves are coming up the middle more-or-less.  He has his Hellmouths positioned on his flanks, and both are mostly being used to be annoying for scenario.  He manages to trigger Vengeance on the Ravagers on the right.

Between Vengeance and activations I start killing tentacles for Corpse Tokens on the Ravagers.  He makes the mistake, having not played against Krueger apparently, of bunching up his Swordsman on the side my flag was on, so Krueger feats and kills most of them.  I'm able to charge his Neraph with a bunch of the Ravagers on the right, putting the Whitemane into position to get them to MAT 8.  In return he feats to make everything defensively difficult to deal with, and he tries to kill a few things with Angelius and Seraph.

Now I have to make it through that feat.  I try to focus mostly on things that are killable, probably spend too much time trying to get work done, but I'm alright on clock in general.  I take out one Hellmouth finally (near my flag).  I do clear my flag again, killing the two models that were near.  I'm able to chip in the final damage on the Neraph as well.

He's apparently feeling kind of desparate at this time and starts throwing things forward.  Seraph gets 3 shots, which I believe all go into Krueger.  He's DEF 18 vs shooting though from Gale Winds, so the first one needs a 13, which he does get, so then he's Flare'd.  Hits with one of the next two shots, not enough to go through my transfers.  Fyanna charges a Ravager going through 3 of her 6 fury before killing it, then attempts a Gallows on my Gorax I think, which misses.  Angelius I thought was going to shoot Krueger, which would have still been transferable, but is going to charge the Gorax and dies to a Ravager freestrike.

On my turn I Vengeance into position, but first charge her with the Death Wolves.  Tala has three Corpse Tokens, so she boosts her charge, boosts her next attack to hit, and boosts damage.  Even though her friends came along to help, she gets the kill.

Round 3:

I am again paired up against Circle.  He's brought Kromac2 and Krueger2 and we're playing Incursion.  Event is play each list once, so I'm playing Kaya2.  I feel pretty alright with her into either matchup because Dog Pile and Loki pretty much ensures that I have the threat range advantage in either case, and Shadow Pack prevents him from getting any advantage on that with Hunter's Mark or Telekinesis.  He opts to play Kromac2.

I setup basically for Kaya's battlegroup to be centrally located, and put a Sentry Stone on each side.  He goes first, runs up really aggressively.  I go next, position to be out of 11" of any of his warbeasts, and 11" from his Blackclad so he can't get s Hunter's Mark off.  Mannikins on the right try to work their way through some of the Mist Riders, but don't do anything.  On the Left they mostly just get into position.

Seeing where I am, he backs up some so that he's out of my threat, though he does use one of the Woldwyrds to break my unit of Shifting Stones.  Everything else is out of 14" for Loki or anything else when he's done.  I look and measure to his Feral and Loki can be out of 10" for his charge, and hook that Woldwyrd, which I do and easily dispatch it.  Pureblood can safely get a spray on the other Wyrd.  Mannikins on the right go onto the flag, on the left they try to work into the Mist Riders.

On his turn I've spaced out on the fact that the Feral can Warp Speed, so Loki is in his threat range.  Kromac feats and casts Primal on the Feral.  Loki is just inside of Carnage range, so the Feral is able to kill him.  Pureblood and Woldwyrd on the left end up killing my Wild Argus I had sent over that way.  Ghetorix and the Gobbers go over towards the left flag to contest and kill a Mannikin.  Kromac is still positioned pretty safely.

So I still have my feat available, and I want to do as much as I can.  Pureblood is given Forced Evolution and Primal.  Ghetorix does a bunch of damage to his Pureblood and Woldwyrd which he doesn't quite kill.  My Feral kills his Feral.  Pureblood does a bunch of damage to Ghetorix, I think leaving him on 1 (second time I've done this in the event).  I bring everyone back near Kaya, positioning the Pureblood so that it will not Frenzy on anything of mine.

He feels like he's going to need to try to kill Kaya here.  I had charged Ghetorix with a couple Mannikins the previous turn, so he needs to clear those because I an probably kill Ghetorix with a free strike.  The remaining two Mist Riders try to bounce shots into Kaya but fail.  He uses Primal Shocks to kill the two Mannikins, and he heals Ghetorix for 2 meaning that he doesn't have enough for Carnage.  Pureblood gets a spray that I think hits Kaya, she takes the damage.  Ghetorix needs 11s to hit Kaya in melee and he has to charge.  Boosts to hit and misses.  At this point it doesn't really matter, because even if he hits two boosted 11s I just transfer.  Kromac had run to the center flag at this point though, so he is scoring.

Looking at the situation, I feel like I can kill Kromac, but I can't really get anything on him easily because of where the Pureblood was from Frenzying.  So instead, Kaya kills Ghetorix, the Feral kills the Mist Riders, Mannikins kill some Gobbers, and Ghetorix kills the Pureblood.  I score the outside flags, so I'm at 3 points.  He just tries to get more points, kills Ghetorix with Kromac (coming off the flag, which I had contested with Shifting Stones. He ends his turn, and I win with 5 CPs.

Conclusion:

This means I win the event, and it was fun.  Can't say I've ever played in an event where I've had to kill Kromac2 twice, but that's how it goes.  I liked the Krueger list a lot still, though I think it might need some tweaks  Death Wolves have been incredible when they've been needed, guaranteed Corpse Tokens is fantastic.  Ravagers have been solid as well.  What I'm less certain of is the Bloodweavers package, so I may analyze that some.

Kaya2 is still pretty solid at dealing with high armor because of her threat ranges.  Sentry Stones are still good at holding points too.  Not sure if she's going to continue being my answer to armor or not, but so far its worked out.

Full Circle - Episode 26

This week I talk about the first CID for Steamroller 2017 and follow that up with a debate on Brennos the Elderhorn vs Pureblood Warpwolf.

Full Circle - Episode 25

This week I discuss Krueger2, Tharn Bloodweavers and Tharn Bloodtrackers with Nuala the Huntress!

Full Circle - Episode 24

This week is full of rambles about Circle theme forces and a little bit about how to handle jack spam.

Full Circle - Episode 23

I talk about my adventures at Adepticon and Krueger the Stormwrath in this episode! Check it out!

Full Circle - Episode 22

In this episode I spend some time talking about tactics with the Celestial Fulcrum. CID news on battle engines and some pre-Adepticon discussion.

Full Circle - Episode 21

This episode I have some rambling at the beginning and then spend a lot of time talking about Loki and some time discussing the Riphorn Satyr.

Full Circle - Episode 20

This episode I discuss a couple of our character warbeasts! Discussion on Brennos the Elderhorn and Ghetorix.

Full Circle - Episode 19

This week some ATC preview and talking about Mohsar the Desertwalker and Kromac the Ravenous!

Full Circle - Episode 18

This episode I talk about Reeves, Reeve Hunters and War Wolf solos! Also talk a little bit of news and answer a few questions from the chat!

Full Circle - Episode 17

Lots to talk about in this episode!  I go over the recent errata to Una2 and the Scarsfell Griffon.  Also look into the latest releases of Loki, Kaya the Wildheart (Kaya3) and the two theme forces from the Circle CMD book!

Full Circle - Episode 16

Video Broadcast all about Circle Orboros for the Privateer Press game Warmachine & Hordes.  This week I talk about Megalith, Feral Warpwolf and Druids of Orboros!

Full Circle - Episode 15

This week we discuss The Devourer's Host, Woldwyrd and my Champions event in Madison!

Full Circle - Episode 14

Tharn-isode! I talk about all of the male Tharn unit/models in the game in this episode.  Check it out!