The Child, Heavy Heavy
Grymkin Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Dark Menagerie
(Child 1) The Child [+29]
- Cage Rager [14]
- Crabbit [0(n/a)]
- Crabbit [0(n/a)]
- Gorehound [6]
- Rattler [8]
- Skin & Moans [15]
- Skin & Moans [15]
- Skin & Moans [15]
Glimmer Imp [4]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Gremlin Swarm [3]
Lady Karianna Rose [4]
Dread Rots (min) [7]
Death Knell [13]
Grymkin Army - 74 / 75 points
[Theme] Dark Menagerie
(Heretic 1) The Heretic [+28]
- Cage Rager [14]
- Crabbit [0(n/a)]
- Crabbit [0(n/a)]
- Crabbits (2) [7]
- Frightmare [9]
- Frightmare [9]
- Frightmare [9]
- Rattler [8]
- Rattler [8]
Glimmer Imp [4]
Glimmer Imp [4]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Gremlin Swarm [3]
Gremlin Swarm [3]
Lady Karianna Rose [4]
Dread Rots (min) [7]
Death Knell [13]
The Child list focused on having as many heavies as I could field, backed up by the Child herself for a hard-hitting beast brick. The Heretic list, on the other hand, fielded a passel of lights (plus the Cage Rager to kind of anchor the list), just because I wanted to see if that was a valid strategy. (It might be? Not sure yet.)
The event went to four rounds, and I had a perfect record: 0 wins, 4 losses. Which is ok, because at this point in my Warmachine career, I'm just happy to get in a full day's gaming! Plus, I lost on clock each round instead of getting my caster assassinated or losing on scenario points. If some of those games had not been timed, I think I had a good chance at winning, so all I need to do is, well, learn what my units can do...
First round I played the Child against what felt like a brutal Cygnar list:
Cygnar Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Storm Division
(Stryker 2) Lord Commander Stryker [+28]
- Stormwall [39]
Captain Arlan Strangewayes [4]
Major Katherine Laddermore [8]
Savio Montero Acosta [0(6)]
Stormsmith Stormcaller (3) [0(5)]
Storm Lances (max) [20]
Stormblade Infantry [10]
- Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard [0(5)]
- Stormblade Infantry Storm Gunner (2) [4]
Storm Strider [18]
This is the first time I've played the Child (IIRC), and it was a pretty rough game in a lot of ways; I was able to eventually clear the right hand circle zone and score some points there, but the left hand zone remained contested for the entire game even, as above, after I killed off all the Storm Lances. The Stormwall was going to be an intractable problem for the entire game, I think. Regardless, I spent so much time looking up my model abilities and trying to figure out what to do that I ran out of time when my opponent had a good 20 minutes left on his clock. (This is a recurring theme at the event.)
Second round was Child versus a Khador warjack spam list:
Khador Army - 74 / 75 points
[Theme] Jaws of the Wolf
(Karchev 1) Karchev the Terrible [+30]
- Destroyer [14]
- Destroyer [14]
- Juggernaut [12]
- Juggernaut [12]
- Marauder [10]
- Marauder [10]
Greylord Forge Seer [0(4)]
- Destroyer [14]
Greylord Forge Seer [0(4)]
Yuri the Axe [0(6)]
Kayazy Eliminators [5]
Kayazy Eliminators [5]
Widowmaker Scouts [8]
(I've probably missed a few things in that list.)
When the game started, I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to deal with all that metal. Turns out that may have been an unfounded fear, as a loaded Skin & Moans makes pretty short work of a Khador heavy. My favorite trick of the match was running the Gorehound with Discord on it (so no orders or spells near the beast) around near Karchev and his Forge Seers, then knocking Karchev down with a Force Hammered Juggernaut. My opponent took a good 20 minutes trying to unpack that particular order of operations puzzle, and in the end did not manage to kill the Gorehound. Again, this game went to time, with my opponent having around 15 minutes left. (I felt like a bit of an idiot on missing out on some easy points on my flag, though.)
Third round was a Grymkin mirror match; I dropped the Heretic list into the King of Nothing:
Grymkin Army - 74 / 75 points
[Theme] Dark Menagerie
(King of Nothing 1) The King of Nothing [+28]
- Cage Rager [14]
- Crabbit [0(n/a)]
- Crabbit [0(n/a)]
- Crabbits (2) [7]
- Skin & Moans [15]
- Skin & Moans [15]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Gremlin Swarm [3]
Gremlin Swarm [3]
Lady Karianna Rose [4]
Dread Rots (min) [7]
Dread Rots (min) [7]
Dread Rots (min) [7]
Twilight Sisters [7]
Death Knell [13]
(again, think I missed a few things on here)
No photo, sadly. I'm afraid this is the match I remember least. Not sure why. My opponent marched forward and cast a bunch of Ashen Clouds to block line of sight to his front line; I countered by shooting it up with the Frightmares, who can ignore clouds. I think that early attrition threw him off his game a bit, but he recovered nicely and kept me from making real progress until, as usual, I ran out of time.
The fourth and final round was against Trollbloods, and my opponent dropped the new hotness, Borka 2.
Trollbloods Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] The Power of Dhunia
(Borka 2) Borka, Vengeance of the Rimeshaws [+27]
- Earthborn Dire Troll [14]
- Earthborn Dire Troll [14]
- Mulg the Ancient [22]
- Rok [19]
- Storm Troll [9]
- Troll Axer [10]
Troll Whelps [0(4)]
Troll Whelps [0(4)]
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (min) [6]
- Stone Scribe Elder [3]
Lynus Wesselbaum & Edrea Lloryrr [5]
Some players may recognize this list as the one that Tim Banky took second at Adepticon Champions with. I did not, but I was pretty sure I was going to have trouble with it. I put the Child on the table, since I didn't think the Heretic's passel of lights could deal with that much Troll meat.
This was a much closer game than the others; I clocked out with my opponent having 1:48 on her clock, so I feel a bit better about my clock management this game. I was able to use a building on my side of the table to keep my caster pretty much completely safe from assassination, but I felt too threatened by his beast brick to run in and cause trouble. As it turned out, I was able to kill all the heavies, though it took most of the game and cost me a Skin & Moans. (Borka's feat was a brutal little time walk for me to deal with.) My opponent was also clearly more experienced against Grymkin than I am with them, and did a very careful job of playing around my Arcana choices.
It was nice to put some Hordes figures back on the table. I'm looking forward to getting more games in this spring, time allowing.
Congrats to Chad and Rune & Board for running a successful tournament, and to Aaron Allen for taking first place. (Side note: The tournament was held at Out of This World Pizza, one of those pizza joints that also has private dining rooms for birthday parties, a huge indoor play area, and the like. It was in fact a very good venue; food on site at a reasonable price and a large room that easily fit the 18 players with plenty of room to spare.)
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