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!