Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Warmachine Tournament 2019-01-13

Portland Game Store has the happy habit of running a monthly Steamroller on a Sunday, which means a lot of people who can't make Saturdays due to work or whatever can still get a game in. This past Sunday saw six players competing for top place - a small turnout, but a good three games for me. (Well, sort of. I did lose every game.)

I brought Grymkin for my list pair:

Grymkin Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Dark Menagerie

[Wanderer 1] The Wanderer [+28]
 - Cage Rager [14]
 - Cage Rager [14]
 - Crabbit [0(-)]
 - Crabbits (2) [7]
 - Gorehound [6]
 - Skin & Moans [15]
 - Skin & Moans [15]
 - Skin & Moans [15]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Lady Karianna Rose [4]
Death Knell [13]

Grymkin Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Dark Menagerie

[Old Witch 3] Zevanna Agha, the Fate Keeper [+27]
 - Cage Rager [14]
 - Cage Rager [14]
 - Crabbit [0(-)]
 - Crabbit [0(-)]
 - Crabbit [0(-)]
 - Crabbit [0(-)]
 - Frightmare [9]
 - Frightmare [9]
 - Skin & Moans [15]
Gremlin Swarm [3]
Gremlin Swarm [3]
Gremlin Swarm [3]
Gremlin Swarm [3]
Lady Karianna Rose [4]
Dread Rots (max) [12]
Death Knell [13]

(For the non-Warmachine players reading this blog: The Grymkin are a literal army of nightmares from hell invading a steampunk fantasy world. Hence the goofy aesthetic to their models and names.)

Round 1: Old Witch 3 vs. Issyria

First I faced Michael and his brand new Dawnmowers Dawnguard Tridents.

Retribution Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Forges of War

[Issyria 1] Issyria, Sibyl of Dawn [+29]
 - Discordia [18]
 - Hemera [16]
 - Hyperion [32]
Arcanist Mechanik [2]
Arcanist Mechanik [2]
Arcanist Mechanik [2]
House Shyeel Arcanists [0(7)]
House Shyeel Arcanists [0(7)]
Dawnguard Trident [16]
Dawnguard Trident [16]

Into this I dropped Old Witch 3. Scenario was Invasion. I won the roll and opted to go first, with Michael picking sides.

This was my first game with this list; also my first game with Old Witch, Frightmares, and Lady Rose... It went about as well as I expected. Windwall was money versus all that Retribution shooting, but even so Michael was able to do a lot of work. My Dread Rots were all but useless; I should have kept one back out of range so that I could Old Witch's recursion ability instead of just losing the whole unit to a well-placed consume shot from Hyperion. The Frightmares were likewise useless, but that's definitely a matchup problem. They had no decent targets here.

Fun game, though.

End of round 1

Grymkin spread out to get around the forest...

But the Dawnguard Tridents get some serious work done. All Dread Rots and one of the Frightmares gone, and all the Gremlin Swarms as well.

I'm able to take out the left Trident and Discordia, but... instead of hitting Hemera (center) with Scourge to stop Admonition, I should have put up Windwall again.


End of game - I'm out of time. Tried to kill the Hyperion just for the points, but couldn't close it out. Did kill Hemera, at least. Victory to Michael!

Round 2: Wanderer vs. High Reclaimer


Protectorate Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Exemplar Interdiction

[High Reclaimer 1] The High Reclaimer [+32]
 - Judicator [34]
 - Hierophant [0(3)]
Exemplar Errant Seneschal [3]
Scrutator Potentate Severius [0(6)]
 - Dervish [7]
Wrack [1]
Choir of Menoth (min) [4]
Exemplar Errants (max) [16]
 - Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard [0(4)]
Exemplar Vengers (max) [20]
Knights Exemplar [9]
 - Knights Exemplar Officer [4]
Visgoth Juviah Rhoven & Honor Guard [9]

I picked Wanderer for some variety, won the roll and went first; scenario was Standoff. 

Dennis is quite a good player, and this list has lots of Hand of Fate going on, so I wasn't expecting a victory or even an easy fight. But it turns out Star Crossed goes a long way... if not long enough.

I had a couple bad turns of luck, and made a crucial mistake that cost me the game, or at least more control points/army points. First, my flanking Gorehound failed to kill a Venger and then sprint into his backfield to disrupt things. Second, he got some crazy hot dice and wiped a Skin and Moans off the table with much less effort than expected (even under Star Crossed). Finally, I got so fixated on killing the Judicator that I forgot to cast Star Crossed on the final turn of the game, and left my beasts so full on fury that all the remaining heavies frenzied.

After my first turn, Dennis just getting going.

Second round begins. Sad Gorehound on the left didn't manage to kill a Venger and then sprint into Dennis' backfield.

Third round... Dennis scored three points to my one here.

Fourth round. At least I blew up that Judicator. As can be seen by all the fury tokens on the table, this is where I made my crucial mistake: I forgot to cast Star Crossed, and I left too much fury on the table to leach it off my heavies...

And here's the consequence. The blue Cage Rager on the left frenzied and destroyed the nearest target (an Examplar of some sort) instead of going for an assassination on the High Reclaimer. Also, of course, no Star Crossed.

Dennis lining up to clear some zones.

End of game, with three out of four zones controlled by Dennis. He won, 7 CP to 2.

Round 3: Old Witch 3 vs. Child

Grymkin Army - 73 / 75 points
[Theme] Dark Menagerie

[Child 1] The Child [+29]
 - Cage Rager [14]
 - Cage Rager [14]
 - Crabbit [0(-)]
 - Crabbit [0(-)]
 - Crabbit [0(-)]
 - Gorehound [6]
 - Rattler [8]
 - Skin & Moans [15]
 - Skin & Moans [15]
Glimmer Imp [4]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Gremlin Swarm [3]
Gremlin Swarm [3]
Gremlin Swarm [3]
Lady Karianna Rose [4]
Death Knell [13]

Remy's a newer Grymkin player who's making do with a limited model selection. But he's certainly getting the hang of using Child to good effect...

I dropped Old Witch again, just to get more playtime with her. Scenario was the Pit II ("Championship Belt"). Remy won the roll and chose to go first; I picked sides (and in retrospect, picked the wrong side...)

My crucial mistakes here were being way too cautious around his Arcana (also, should have dropped Wanderer again) and then going on tilt after he jammed me up with a Gorehound under Discord and a Gremlin Swarm base-to-base with Old Witch. It took me a good thirty minutes to clear them off, and in so doing I left a clear charge lane to my caster. He took advantage of it and neatly closed out the game with a proper assassination.

I should have played more aggressively, worried a bit less about Arcana, and not left my caster so terrible vulnerable. But it was a good game regardless, and I learned a new trick (Gremlin Swarms are very unkind to battle engine casters).

Deployed and ready to go.

Second round begins.

Third round begins. Note the jamming Gorehound and the Gremlin Swarm directly in front of the Old Witch.


End of my last turn - I have finally cleared out the Discord Gorehound and the Gremlin Swarm, but it took far too long. Notice how little has changed between this picture and the last one...

End of game. Lower right corner shows Remy's Cage Rager right up in Old Witch's face, having easily dispatched her.

1 comment:

DeanM said...

Wow. Those are some cool-looking models.