This past Monday, I went up against Asher (one our local Press Gangers) in the first round of the finals for this Spring's Iron Gauntlet League.
For those unfamiliar with the format, Iron Gauntlet is a Warmachine Steamroller event. Each player brings three 50-point lists. The first few rounds are normal steamroller, and each list must be played at least once. The final four (or eight in this case) players match up in single-elimination 75-point games, with the list built from the models brought for the 50-point lists.
I didn't expect to make it into the finals rounds, so my list selection wasn't optimized for the finals rounds. I'd brought Makeda 3 Brute Squad, Rasheth Chain Gang, and Martin Hornacek's Mordikaar list. Asher had run Saeryn, Abyslonia 2, and Vayl 2. Because of the league format, we'd had time to scope out each other's possibilities, so the usual list building phase was already done:
Saeryn
* Succubus
* Angelius
* Angelius
* Ravagore
* Shredder
* Typhon
* Zuriel
Blighted Nyss Shepherd
The Forsaken
The Forsaken
Spell Martyr
Spell Martyr
Blighted Nyss Sorceress and Hellion
Strider Deathstalker
Blackfrost Shard
Strider Rangers
This list is four points short, as I'm hazy on what else he had. Probably a Spawning Vessel & Acolytes.
Dominar Rasheth (Chain Gang, tier 4)
* Titan Sentry
* Titan Sentry
* Titan Gladiator
* Titan Gladiator
* Bronzeback Titan
* Basilisk Krea
* Basilisk Drake
Agonizer
Agonizer
Agonizer
Paingiver Master Tormentor
Paingiver Master Tormentor
Paingiver Beast Handlers (max)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (min)
Gatorman Posse (max)
Gatorman Posse (max)
The scenario was two fronts. He won the roll and chose to go first; I picked the side with a couple of walls on it. The center of the board was dominated by a hill. His side had a hill and a forest.
Deployment for both of us was pretty simple. He placed his beasts in a brick with the Angelii on my left, support in the rear, Blackfrost Shard and Deathstalker on my right, and the Nyss Sorceress and Rangers on my left. I deployed in a brick with Rasheth right up in the front (slow fat man has to get up the table), and the Titans arrayed beside him, the Bronzeback slightly behind. One unit of gators was on each flank, and the Agonizers and Beast Handlers snuggled up in the back. The Basilisks were placed between the Titan herd and the left-hand gators.
First turns were pretty typical - we both ran up the field as far as we could. Well, I went slightly shorter, to deny him an easy alpha. Rasheth tossed Carnivore on the right-hand gators and popped feat. Between feat and the Agonizers, I effectively locked him out of doing any serious damage to me, so instead he maneuvered for position on his second turn and popped his own feat - definitely locking me out of doing any serious damage, as it prevents melee attacks on his beasts and I had one ranged attack.
I then jammed with the Sentries, using Locker to prevent his beasts from moving in any direction except directly toward the Sentries. I put out a very little damage with the Drake, and used the right-hand gators to cripple the Blackfrost Shard and remove the Deathstalker. Left-hand gators tried to move up and take out the Rangers; they did no damage, but the Rangers failed a fear check, so that was good enough. Finally, I used a Gladiator to take out the objective, and thus scored a point, plus another for controlling the zone.
Unfortunately, I'd moved Rasheth too far forward. He threw the right-hand Sentry at the nearby Gladiator with the Ravagore, knocking both Titans down and neatly eliminating Locker from the equation. After that, it was just a matter of tagging Rasheth with Saeryn's ranged weapon, which prevented him from transferring, and then killing him with a couple of spells.
All in all, a pretty good game and a valuable lesson: keep your caster back as far as possible...
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