I went to the Ticket Takedown at Salem's
Haven Gaming yesterday and went 2-2... Which isn't as well as I expected, but still, not too bad. No pictures, sadly. The tournament was 50 point Steamroller using the SR2015 beta scenarios; two lists, divide and conquer, first place gets a ticket to Lock & Load 2015.
Here's what I brought:
Supreme Aptimus Zaal and Kovaas (T4 theme list)
* Cannoneer
* Raider
* Aptimus Marketh
Ancestral Guardian x4
Hakaar the Destroyer
Extoller Soulward x3
Immortals (max) x2
Dominar Rasheth (Chain Gang T4)
* Cannoneer
* Sentry
* Gladiator
* Krea
Paingiver Beast handlers (max)
Paingiver Task Master x2
Gatorman Posse (max) x2)
Agonizer x2
I'm pretty comfortable with the Zaal list. While the Rasheth list is held up as quite good, in my experience the gators die too quickly. Maybe I'm playing them wrong.
First game was against Brett's Cryx. I dropped Zaal versus his Goreshade 3. This was shaping up to be a good game, but I put Zaal about an inch too far forward, and he was able to pull off a top of 2 assassination with feat to stationary Zaal and then dropped a couple of Siphon Bolts and Leviathan shots onto him. Whoops.
Second game was versus JC's Skorne - not really a mirror match as we were both playing rather different lists. He dropped Makeda 3 versus my Rasheth. Since we both knew exactly what each others' stuff did, play went very quickly... He managed to set Rasheth on fire first turn with an Incindiarius shot, which made me die of shame a little. Luckily, the fire went out on the next turn. I ran my beasts up the middle and sent the gators along either flank. The Immortals on my right promised to be a serious problem for the gators, but I was able to largely neutralize the Incindiarii on the left with the other gator unit. Popped feat on second turn, ate the Incindiarii and did my best to tie up the Immortals. He came back, feated, and used Karn and Makeda to wipe out half the left-hand gators and then do considerable damage to the Sentry and the Gladiator. But he didn't kill either beast, so I was able to do a fast assassination on my third turn, since Makeda was in melee with both beasts, and that's pretty much a win.
After lunch, third game was against Kyle's Cryx, in Destruction (two flags, two objectives). He dropped a classic Asphyxious 2 lists - bane knight, bane thralls, Tartarus, and Satyxis Blood Witches. I dropped against that, and thanks to going second, I was able to put a boosted Cannoneer shot into Asphyxious on the second turn and drop him to half his health. Next turn, he immediately put Asphyxious behind a wall right on the edge of the kill box, and I left the Cannoneer in the middle of the board to keep him there. Under feat and a rather injudicious use of last stand, I was able to remove most of the Bane Knights and Blood Witches, and shifted hard to the right in an attempt to score. In the end it went to time; I was able to kill the objective, clear the flag, and dominate for two points with about two minutes left on my clock and ten seconds left on his; flipped the clock and he just let it go. A good game, even if it was a grind for both of us.
My final game was against Scott's Legion, in Incursion (three flags). He brought Saeryn, two Angelii, hex hunters, and (most importantly) the new Blight Blades, which he kept off the board to ambush. I dropped Rasheth, my usual anti-Legion tech. In retrospect, Zaal might have been a better choice. This game, the gators on the left (against the Hex Hunters) died very quickly to their spells, while the ones on the right did somewhat better and eventually tied up his left flank. The Sentry proved to be the most important piece in this game, with Locker tying up both Angelii for a couple turns. Sadly, it wasn't enough; even though I started scoring as soon as I could on the right flag, Rasheth has a hell of time running away from ambushing Blight Blades. I wasn't able to keep him alive long enough to win on scenario. If the dice had been a little more favorable, I might have cleared the center flag and been able to score there... but that just didn't happen.
So that's two wins and two losses. On the whole, I'm not displeased with my performance. I'm much happier with how the Zaal list played, while the Rasheth list is leaving me a bit cold. I'm going to change it up; I'm just not sure if I'll go for the full titan herd (six titans) or if I'll try the new Trident list that's going around (Gators, three titans, three Drakes).
