Controlled Warping: Madison

Showing posts with label Madison. Show all posts

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Krueger the Stormlord vs Harbinger of Menoth

Alright, round 3! I get paired up against Dan who's a Madison local. He is playing Protectorate at this event, where he was playing Cryx the last time that I saw him. He's got Harbinger and High Reclaimer today. I don't think High Reclaimer is all that great against Circle, so I basically expect Harbinger ... which is what I get. I play Krueger2 as he tends to have a lot better time against her, especially with some models immune to Fire and less things affected by her feat. Also, Krueger was the right answer based on the scenario.

Lists

Krueger the Stormlord (*5pts)
* Gorax (4pts)
* Feral Warpwolf (9pts)
* Warpwolf Stalker (10pts)
Celestal Fulcrum (9pts)
Druids of Orboros (Leader and 5 Grunts) (7pts)
* Druid of Orboros Overseer (2pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
* Stone keeper (1pts)
Blackclad Wayfarer (2pts)
Blackclad Wayfarer (2pts)
Gallows Grove (1pts)
Una the Falconer (3pts)
* Rotterhorn Griffon (3pts)

Harbinger of Menoth (*5pts)
* Devout (5pts)
* Hierophant (2pts)
Avatar of Menoth (11pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer (2pts)
High Paladin Dartan Vilmon (3pts)
Initiate Tristan Durant (3pts)
* Reckoner (8pts)
Paladin of the Order of the Wall (2pts)
Paladin of the Order of the Wall (2pts)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (2pts)
The Covenant of Menoth (2pts)
The Wrack (3 wracks) (1pts)

Vassal of Menoth (2pts)

Scenario

Incursion

Special Rules

Place three flags in accordance with the diagram below. At the end of the second player's first turn, randomly remove a non-center flag from the table. Starting on the second player's second turn, at the end of each player's turn a player earns control points (CP) as follows:
Outer Flag: Control = 1 CP, Dominate = 2 CP
Center Flag: Control = 1 CP, Dominate = 1 CP
Victory Conditions

The first player to earn at least 5 control points and have more control points than the opponent immediately wins the game

If time runs out before a player has won the game via scenario or assassination victory, break the tie as outlined on the Scenario Reference Sheet. For the 3rd tiebreaker, double the army points within 4 inches of each flag

Only the active player scores when multiple players dominate the same zone or flag.

Game

Dan wins the die roll and opts to choose a side, he picks the side with a goofy circular wall and a building, so I get to go first.

Round 1

Since I get to go first I press the issue pretty hard. I stay in the middle of the table so that I can hopefully threaten either flag. Krueger TK's himself, throws up Storm Wall, and then charges to the middle of the table. Druids do their thing, Shifting Stones setup. Una sets up Watcher, and everyone runs.

He pretty aggressively comes in at me, with almost everything running. Rhupert puts Tough and Fearless on the Errants. I believe No Magic goes up from the Choir as well. Harbinger moves up, feats and hides mostly behind the building. The flag to my right goes away, which is unfortunate as I think he's got more of his army on my left.

Round 2

I have to manuever around the feat and try to use a lot of shenanigans to figure out how I'm going to kill the Errants with magic attacks. I put some attacks into the errants, that doesn't go nearly well between no knockdown, tough and self-sacrifice but I do get some work done. I try to manuever over towards the other flag so that I can start scoring. I also feat to try to get to that point, plus just to slow him down. I took way, way to long to play out this turn as well, which is a big problem that I need to look into.

On his turn he gets a solo back into base with that outside flag. Avatar moves up, gets Enliven'd. Errants trying to do work in melee, didn't lose anything too important I don't recall. He's mostly just trying to compensate for the -2 SPD from my feat.

Round 3

The biggest thing that I see here is that i can probably get both heavies dead. I had to have my Stalker and my Gorax pass their Threshold checks though, which they do. Stalker gets Primal, and after Druids make it so that the Avatar can't go anywhere, he goes in on it. Nearly kills it, but doesn't quite get it done. Then, Una with some boosted shots finishes it off. Rotterhorn does his best to try to kill some more infantry. Krueger charges the flag, kills the models on it hoping I can dominate. Feral w/ Primal goes in on the ARM buff'd Reckoner, but he comes up short. I try to get some damage from Gunfighter on him in melee with the Fulcrum, Reckoner still lives.

I think Dan was feeling like the game was not going well. Krueger is on 2 transfers and it seems like he's setting up for an assassination. Tries to get Tristan to where he can attempt to Immolate Krueger, but unfortunately he comes up a little short, so that doesn't yield him a whole lot. I believe the Errants managed to kill the Rotterhorn her perhaps (that might be the next turn though).

Round 4

Feral frenzies on a choir boy unfortunately. Stalker takes out a Druid on his frenzy. Shifting Stones teleport the Gorax up to start working on the Errants, which works out fairly well, but I don't think I was quite able to clear the center flag. Krueger is able to clear out his flag on that side, but it leaves him with 1 Fury, which isn't a great place to be in against Harbinger. I'm also running quite low on time at this point, like 2-3 minutes type of low.

Basically at this point, he's looking at a Cataclysm assassination, I kind of hate that spell since it auto hits for kinda no reason, but that's ok. He gets 2 of them off, boosts both damage rolls ... Krueger is on 1 after the first roll was transferred. Whew! Choir contest the flag, get Dirge of Mists, the couple errants in the center contest too.

Round 5

I have to act QUICK this turn, but I should be able to. Krueger clears out his flag with out too much problem. Una and the Gorax manage to clear out the other flag, and with a minute or so left on my clock I go to 5 control points

Analysis

The BIG lesson here is that I needed to play a ton faster. When I'm triggering feat I need to play faster, and I need to start getting my game plan going faster in general. I also need to just execute better, there were a bunch of mistakes that were small, but costly in that game. Dan and I had a great game though, and that puts me in first place for the tournament!

Krueger the Stormlord vs Lich Lord Asphyxious

Following my round 1 victory over Retribution pairings go up and I'm facing off against everyone's favorite PG/Judge/Infernal Travis! He's brought Lich2 and Terminus, I'm figuring he'll just play Lich, and I'm right. With the Druids in the Krueger list, I figure I'll just go ahead and drop that again.

Lists

Lich Lord Asphyxious (*6pts)

* Deathripper (4pts)

* Nightwretch (4pts)

Bane Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)

Bane Thralls (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)

* Bane Thrall Officer & Standard (3pts)

Bile Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)

The Withershadow Combine (5pts)

Bane Lord Tartarus (4pts)

Darragh Wrathe (4pts)

Pistol Wraith (3pts)

Saxon Orrik (2pts)

Warwitch Siren (2pts)

Scenario

Destruction

Special Rules

Mark a zone (12 inch × 6 inch rectangle) and place two Critical Asset objectives in accordance with the diagram below. The objective on Player 1's side of the table is a friendly Faction model to Player 1 and vice versa. Starting on the second player's second turn, at the end of each player's turn a player earns control points (CP) as follows.

Artifice: Kill Box

Enemy Objective: Destroyed/Removed from Play = 1 CP (once per objective)

Zone: Control = 1 CP, Dominate = 2 CP

Victory Conditions

The first player to earn at least 5 control points and have more control points than the opponent immediately wins the game.

If time runs out before a player has won the game via scenario or assassination victory, break the tie as outlined on the Scenario Reference Sheet. For the 3rd tiebreaker, double the army points within the zone.

Game

Travis wins the die roll and not surprisingly opts to go first.

Round 1

Nothing terribly exciting, everything runs forward, Gaspy hides behind most of this small building. Gaspy casts Hellbound, and not a whole lot else happens that turn for him.

Since I'm going second and there is a whole army of undead that I'm looking down and basically no guns, I realize that Lightning Storm is a better option. Krueger throws 2 of those out there from a very forward Gallows Grove. A Druid blasts the lead Bile Thrall off the table as well.

Round 2

He's worried about not putting enough stuff into the zone, because Krueger can just feat and get blown out from that. So Bane Thralls get into the zone, whole unit. Nightwretch kills a Druid with a Blaster shot. As the Bane Thralls were coming he was asking about Watcher triggering, but it was a dumb time for me to trigger it. He then Cursed the Gallows Grove with Tartarus and charged it, catching 2 Druids and the Grove, turning them all into Bane Thralls. I made a mistake here and forgot about Watcher, which probably would have been enough to do in Tartarus. Bane Knights also run to get into the zone. Biles kinda came in behind. Then, he sees his sea of dudes and decides to throw Gaspy to basically the edge of the zone.

Travis pretty much immediately realizes that he easily put Gaspy into a single telepor with the Feral onto Gaspy. I first go with the Fulcrum which is within 10" of Gaspy as well and only between them are Banes. So I aim, kill 4 out of 5 banes that I hit, boost to hit on Gaspy 6-6-6, so that's a crit, he's stationary! I shoot him with the other guns and put a couple points on him. Primal on the Feral, teleport with the Stones, and a few attacks later that's a dead Gaspy2

Analysis

Not much to say on this one. I did feel fairly confident that I could get rid of a LOT of banes with how my list works. The one big mistake was mentioned was not taking out Tartarus when I had a good opportunity, but it was a good lesson to learn.

Krueger the Stormlord vs Adeptis Rahn

Saturday morning I made me way up to Madison for a tournament ran by Crippled System's very own Carnage¹! The tournament was 2 lists, no divide and conquer and no character restrictions. Since the lists that I play are prepared for other tournaments generally, I basically ignored the character non-restriction. I checked, but he wouldn't let me play with Bradigus since he's not out legally until Wednesday. That means, Krueger the Stormlord and Cassius the Oathkeeper are my warlocks of choice, and you'll see from the battle reports that I really only played the former. Hopefully these battle reports are actually alright, as I did not remember to take a picture basically at all during this event.

Round 1 I get paired up with Max, who I actually had the pleasure to face back at the Dice Dojo² WMW Qualifier event in the last round. This time he's brought Adeptis Rahn and Lord Arcanist Ossyan. Given that my Krueger list had Druids in it, I expected him to choose Ossyan. That said, with those lists the selection was pretty easy for me and I choose Krueger. As the title of this article would suggest, he surprised my be picking Rahn.

Lists

Adeptis Rahn Shyeel (*6pts)
* Hyperion (18pts)
* Phoenix (10pts)
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker (2pts)
Dawnguard Invictors (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
* Dawnguard Invictor Officer & Standard (2pts)
House Shyeel Battle Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Arcanist (1pts)
Arcanist (1pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)

Scenario

Supply and Demand

Special Rules

Mark a zone (12 inch-diameter circle) and place two Supply Cache objectives in accordance with the diagram below. The objective on Player 1's side of the table is a friendly Faction model to Player 1 and vice versa. Starting on the second player's second turn, at the end of each player's turn a player earns control points (CP) as follows:
Artifice: Kill Box
Zone: Control = 1 CP, Dominate = 2 CP
Enemy Objective: Destroyed/Removed from Play = 1 CP (once per objective)

Victory Conditions

The first player to earn at least 5 control points and have more control points than the opponent immediately wins the game.

Game

He wins the die roll I do believe, and opts to go first. We go through all of the stages of deployment. One important note about this table is that it there is a skinny forest in the middle of the table. I deployed in such a way that the Fulcrum could get some shots on the objective. He seemed to do sort of similarly with the Hyperion, with his Phoenix on the other side.

Round 1

He moves Eiryss into the forest in the middle into a position where she's a pain. The Mage Hunter Assassins move up into positions where they're threatening off the flanks pretty aggressively. The rest of the army moves/runs up. Rahn throws up Force Field and puts Polarity Shield on the Hyperion.

I can't move up quite as aggressively as I often tend to like to with Krueger, but I mostly feel like what I need to do is just keep my druids alive and contributing with counter magic and some force bolts. I don't actually position my army terribly well on this turn, I think mostly due to having not played him for a bit and being rusty. I do get Una and the Rotterhorn into great spots though really. Blackclads in position to do some work. I actually Elemental Immunity the Druids and charge one with the Fulcrum hoping to get Eiryss with the SP10 attack, I get her targetted and in range ... but rollde a 9 boosting instead of a 10, oh well! Una puts up Watcher, Krueger casts Storm Wall.

Round 2

First thing he's eyeing is that he wants his Mage Hunter Assassin on my left flank to take out a Shifting Stone so that teleportation is off the board. He looks at it, realizes that I have Watcher up on Una, he decided it was worth the risk to get the Stone off the table, tries to see if he can position far enough back to avoid the Watcher attack, he doesn't, Rotterhorn kills that Mage Hunter. The other Mage Hunter runs around the edge to flank hard. Battle Mages actually back up a little to stay safe. Hyperion comes up, tries to shoot a few things, between shortened range and what not he doesn't do much. Eiryss tries to kill a Druid, fails to hit a 9. Invictors take some shots, I think they all came up short, or maybe they got a single Druid. Phoenix moves a lot closer, but far from where it seems my heavies are.

He had correctly put Hyperion into the zone, otherwise I'm looking to clear it out and then start winning on scenario. Instead he doesn't, so I start to setup for killing his Phoenix. Druids do some work on the Invictors, Feral moves up a bit on the edge of teleport. Shifting Stones move the Stalker over near (but not yet in melee with) the Phoenix. Krueger throws up Storm Wall again, TKs the Phoenix closer and backwards using a Gallows Grove over there. I think before that too, the Fulcrum shot at it a few times as well. Stalker turns it into a wreck marker. Una was within 5" of Eiryss, so she kills her.

Round 3

The Rotterhorn had come closer, so I think he wanted to try to shoot it some with Hyperion, didn't really hit enough times to do much due to Storm Wall and missing. Battle Mages kill the Blackclad. I had a Blackclad in the way of his Mage Hunter Assassin that flanked, it charged, missed the 7 to hit. Invictors try to get into melee, manage I think to kill a druid or 2. At some point in this turn he was thinking about making an assassination run, but I pointed out to him that you can't ever see through a forest, only into or out of. I think I'm forgetting something here, but that's all I remember from his turn

On my turn, he put the Hyperion in teleport range for the Feral, so Gorax puts Primal on him, Shifting Stones teleport him. Activate the Feral and my dice are kind of insane, he does like 2/3s damage to it. The Rotterhorn scratches it up a little bit more, doesn't kill it but its close, Fulcrum eventually takes it down. Stalker Berserks through 4 Invictors. Blackclad charges the Assassin and kills it.

Round 4

He charges Rahn up into the Hyperion wreck marker to make an attack on the Rotterhorn, camps his whole stack and feats. The Battle Mages pull the Feral around, I don't remember if they managed to kill it or not. His other minor remnants of the army move around.

I try to have my Rotterhorn headbutt Rahn, but he misses even with a boost. Krueger TKs the Stalker to be in walk distance with both weapons. Primal on the Stalker, get gets into combat with Rahn, and unfortunately toward the end I misunderstood that I needed to do 11 damage, meaning I needed to roll a 15, so I spent 2 boosts on that ... So I leave Rahn not quite dead, with an angry wolf in front of him. I believe I shot the Warpwolf with the fire AOE from the fulcrum to get Rahn on fire, which I do, and I believe he dies to the fire roll the next turn.

Analysis

The biggest thing for me during this game was that I played way too slowly! I was down under 10 minutes in this game and I didn't even use my feat. Unacceptable. I also need to work on my positioning of a few things this showed me. Another thing is that I need to remember to use Force Bolts on things in Defensive Line sooner because then they're easier to deal with.

^{1. Carnage is Brian from Crippled System, you should check them out!

2. www.chicagolandgames.com}