Battle Report: 35-Point Tiericide, September 21

The Cog threw a 35-point, three round, theme force required Warmachine tournament at Ancient Wonders this past Sunday. I went 1-2, and learned an important lesson: Know your list to beat the clock. Had a lot of fun, though.

First game was Incursion against Matt's Legion of Everblight.

Absylonia, Terror of Everblight (Winds of Change, tier 4)
* Harrier
* Raek
* Raek
* Shredder
* Shredder
* Ravagore
* Scythean
Spawning Vessel and Acolytes (max)
Blighted Nyss Shepherd
Blighted Nyss Shepherd
The Forsaken
The Forsaken

I countered with Skorne:

Dominar Rasheth (Chain Gang, tier 4)
* Titan Gladiator
* Titan Gladiator
* Titan Cannoneer
Agonizer
Agonizer
Paingiver Task Master
Paingiver Beast Handlers (min)
Gatorman Posse (max)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

I went first (IIRC). The titan wall rumbled forward on the right and center, while the gators took the left flank. Between Rasheth's feat, Enrage, and Blood Mark, I was able to make pretty quick work of his heavies and deny him an effective feat. As you can see below, I was in a strong position...

But because I've never run this list before, and Rasheth only a couple of times, every turn took at least twice as long as it should have. I ran out of time while he still had about 22 minutes. Had I not clocked myself, I think I'd have won this one pretty handily - one of those Gladiators is nearly dead, and the other's pretty bruised, but the Cannoneer is untouched.

Second round was Close Quarters against Doug's Cryx.
Goreshade the Cursed (Heresy of Shadows, tier 2)
* Kraken
Bane Lord Tartarus
Bane Thralls (max)
* Officer & Standard Bearer
Bane Thralls (min)
* Officer & Standard Bearer

vs

Supreme Aptimus Zaal (Immortal Host, tier 4)
* Kovaas
* Aptimus Marketh
* Basilisk Krea
* Basilisk Drake
* Reptile Hound
Ancestral Guardian
Ancestral Guardian
Hakaar the Destroyer
Extoller Soulward
Extoller Soulward
Immortals (max)
Immortals (min)

Again, I went first. I bricked up with a set of Krea animi and the convenient hill  in the center to defend against the Kraken's ranged shooting, and started filling up the AGs with souls from Zaal and the Extollers. He advanced, with his Kraken in the center, and was kind enough to give me Vengeance moves on both Immortal units. On turn two, I cleared off a few banes, killed Bane Lord Tartarus (which took a surprising amount of work) and failed a charge against the Kraken with an Ancestral Guardian under Last Stand. He went to work killing off Immortals with his banes on his second turn, but made a couple crucial mistakes: first, he allowed the LS'ed AG to take a Defensive Strike, which knocked out a bane and triggered the Kovaas' appearance, and second, he put Goreshade in charge range of the newly-created Kovaas. So on turn three I popped feat and used the Kovaas to assassinate Goreshade for an early win:

Round four was Destruction against Adam's Cygnar:

Major Victoria Haley (Stormbringers, tier 1)
* Stormwall
* Thorn
Stormsmith Stormcaller
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
* ATGM Officer
Black 13th

I dropped Rasheth again. This actually took a bit of thought: while Rasheth's feat is useless against this matchup and Carnivore is pretty poor, I felt that double Agonizers plus Castigate would put a serious crimp in Haley's game plan. Conversely, the Stormwall would be able to munch through Zaal's Immortals pretty hard with Covering Fire and electroleaps.

So... Haley's a very rough matchup. Her feat is no fun at all, and the Stormwall's notoriously good. But! Turns out that not being able to arc spells (thanks to Castigate) or allocate focus to Stormwall (thanks to Agonizer) is really, really annoying. My beast brick went up the center, with Rasheth cowering behind a convenient wall to raise his ranged defense to a whopping 14. The Gators came up the right in a (failed) attempt to stay out Haley's feat. I was able to weather the feat, then take down Thorn, the Stormwall, and the enemy objective in exchange for both of my Gladiators. And then I ran out of time. Again.

We played out the rest of the game anyway, and Haley failed an assassination run due to some rather bad dice. Again, had I not clocked myself (and therefore played slightly more conservatively in the last two turns), I think I'd have been able to eke out a win here, just by controlling the zone and killing two or three gun mages a turn.

So that's this week's lesson: If you're going to play competitively, play a list you've practiced with.