Just A Games Con Masters Tournament, April 18

I drove all the way down to Corvallis yesterday - ninety miles of gorgeous weather through farm country. Might have been the best part of the day, which tells you something about the games. I was attending the Just A Games Con for a small Warmachine Masters Tournament. It ended up with nine players, myself being the ninth, and I got the bye in the first round. So I only got to play two games...

First game was against Chadd's Circle Orboros. He was the only player at the tournament running with the Active Duty Roster, and was playing Mohsar/Cassius. The scenario was Recon, but that proved irrelevant for our game. He dropped Mohsar versus my Zaal list, and after adjusting with his ADR specialists, produced the following matchup:

Supreme Aptimus Zaal and Kovaas
* Aptimus Marketh
* Cyclops Raider
* Cyclops Shaman
Hakaar the Destroyer
Extoller Soulward
Gatorman Witch Doctor
Saxon Orrik
Paingiver Task Master
Gatorman Bokor and Bog Trog Swamp Shamblers
Venator Slingers (max)
Nihilators (max)
Immortals (max)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

Mohsar the Desert Walker
* Ghetorix
* Megalith
* Gorax
Alten Ashley
Saxon Orrik
Gallows Grove
Gallows Grove
Shifting Stones + Stone Keeper
Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)
Farrow Slaughterhousers
Farrow Slaughterhousers

Mohsar won the roll and elected to go second. This was probably the right choice.

This was a bad matchup for four reasons:

1. Chadd's a good player, one of the best in our meta.
2. He just got into Skorne as a side army, so he knows what my stuff does.
3. He was able to swap out a heavy and put in the two units of Slaughterhousers to negate all the Tough I had on the field, plus add in some Remove From Play to prevent my Shambler Engine from working at full capacity.
4. I'd never played this Zaal list before.

So things didn't go well for the Skorne Empire. He was able to use the Pillars of Salt and the Bloodtrackers to dictate the terms of engagement in the center of board. First round he dropped pillars to prevent me from engaging the Bloodtrackers with much of anything; second round he used the Bloodtrackers to clear a space and did it again. Third round he went for a teleport assassination with Ghetorix and won the game. (I'd almost killed one of the stones on the prior turn, but the dice failed me!)

I had issues with deployment and unpacking my army - Hakaar never got into contention simply because he was jammed up, for example. The Slingers might have been very useful against the Pillars of Salt, but because I'd deployed first and put them off on one flank, they weren't able to get into effective range before they were killed off by Bloodtrackers and Slaughterhousers. Immortals, too, were pretty well jammed out of the fight by my own models.

So, some thoughts from this game:

• Practice! Have to practice deploying and unpacking first turn.
• This list probably wants to go second, just for some extra room in the deployment zone and for the ability to react to the opponent's deployment.
• I should probably drop Saxon and the Swamp Gobbers for a Tyrant Commander and Standard Bearer. The extra 2" of movement from Press Forward will extend the threat range of the Slingers and help alleviate some of the unpacking issues.
• The Slingers and Immortals might end up being replaced, probably with Swordsmen or Karax and Venator Reivers or Keltarii (or a second unit of Nihilators). That'll have to wait for a few more test games in better matchups, though.
• Might want to drop the Gatorman Witch Doctor for an Ancestral Guardian. Again, needs some more games before I decide.

The second game was against Scott's Legion of Everblight. Scenario was Close Quarters, terrain was largely irrelevant. He'd lost both games in earlier rounds, so he went with his experimental Kallus list instead of Lyllyth 2. He also won the roll and went second. The lists were thus:

Makeda and the Exalted Court
* Molik Karn
* Bronzeback Titan
* Titan Gladiator
* Cyclops Brute
* Cyclops Brute
* Cyclops Shaman
Agonizer
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Paingiver Beast Handlers (max)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

Kallus, Wrath of Everblight
* Succubus
* Nephilim Soldier
* Zuriel
* Afflictor
Blighted Nyss Shepherd
Fyanna the Lash
Strider Deathstalker
Strider Deathstalker
Totem Hunter
Blighted Nyss Legionnaires + Captain Farilor & Standard
Strider Blightblades
Spawning Vessel
Blackfrost Shard

This was a straight mash up that Scott lost on clock, as he'd never played this list before and it has a lot of moving pieces. If he'd not timed out, he probably would have won. At any rate, I went with the usual approach for Makeda's Brute Squad: Run up the table, then jam with the brutes and threaten with Makeda, Karn, and the Bronzeback. It would have worked, too, if not for Kallus' feat and the ambushing Blightblades. He advanced a bit more cautiously up the table, with his Legionnaires under their mini-feat and in Defensive Line, plus Unyielding from Kallus, putting them at a respectable ARM 22.

I put Makeda into position to dominate the near flag and jammed the left and right sides with a Brute each - not enough to tie up everything, but tying down about half his models and presenting him with targets that had to be dealt with. Karn killed off the Deathstalker on my left, then Fate Walked back, and here's where I made a critical mistake: I left him with 4 Fury and Makeda with 3. She wouldn't be able to leach him to empty. Everything else moved up to threaten.

His second turn he brought the Blightblades on to contest my flag, preventing me from scoring. They didn't do anything else during the game, but that was enough, since I had to deal with them. He killed of the Brutes, as expected, and it takes a considerable effort to do so, as expected. Then he popped feat, so any warriors I killed became Incubi - and, incidentally, that shuts down Makeda's feat as well, since her feat triggers on destroyed and Kallus' feat triggers on disabled. Third turn co9mes around and I rolled boxcars on Karn's frenzy check, essentially losing me the game - without his ability to kill scores of infantry, I can't chew through enough to overcome Kallus' numbers advantage. I gave it a shot anyway, and fail; at the very last, I trampled the Bronzeback through the Legionnaires to get to Kallus, but they knocked out his Spirit with free strikes so that was a bust.

He went for an assassination himself on his turn, with about six or eight minutes left on the clock, but it failed and he timed out. I might have been able to squeeze out a win, but it would have been dicy at best.

Lesson from this one:

• I probably should have been more aggressive. A few extra inches up the board on the first turn might have brought Karn and Makeda into position to feat on the Legionnaires on second turn, and thus remove them from the table, before Kallus got a chance to bring his feat into play.
• If not, perhaps I should have been a little less aggressive with the Brutes. If he'd had to charge them to eliminate the, Set Defense would have brought their DEF up to 15, which is quite a bit better...