The PDX Open: A Warmachine tournament report

Saturday, March 2 saw the first PDX Open: A large Warmachine tournament with the top 8 players getting wildcard points toward the Warfaire Weekend invitational. I... did not get in the top 8. But I did have fun.

I brought Grymkin, which I've been playing for a while. While I did bring King of Nothing as an off list, I really only played Pat Dunford's classic Dreamer list:

The Dreamer
* Gorehound x3
* Cage Rager x3
* Skin and Moans x2
* Crabbit x2
Death Knell
Gremlin Swarm x4

 Round 1: Vs. Jeremiah's Skorne

Set up versus Jeremiah's Skorne

 First game was against a local, Jeremiah, one of the hosts of the Spellstorm Miniatures podcast. He's been learning Skorne lately and decided to one-list it with Xekaar and a bunch of beasts. We had a pretty good game, but I was able to push back on scenario until he ran out of time.

End of game - Xekaar has rushed into the middle to kill a few Gremlin Swarms and get some points before time.

 Round 2: Vs. Adrianne's Circle Orboros

Vs. Adrianne's Tharn. (The six models on the far left are not actually in play yet). I do so hate the Tharn Wolf Riders.

Second round I played against Adrianne from... points north? Not sure. She dropped the dreaded Iona/Tharn list into me - my plan for it had been to dodge all event. However, she's newish to the game, and had never played against Grymkin, so I figured I had an even chance.

As it happened, though she pushed me pretty hard on scenario and attrition, she also clocked out, and thus I eked out my second win of the day. (I'm not terribly happy about winning that way, but I'll take it...)

End of game vs. Adrianne, just after the clock chimed.

 Round 3: Vs. Jaden's Circle Orboros

Jaden's Tharn advance on the poor, pitiful Grymkin.

But my next match was against Jaden, one of the hosts of the Line of Sight podcast and a much, much better player than me. He, too, was playing Iona Tharn, and boy was that rough - at the end of the fifth round, all I had left on the table was the Dreamer. It was a good game nonetheless, though - a rather poor dice roll on turn two meant that I got to pop the Lord of the Feast before he got to do anything, so that's a moral victory.

Round 4: Vs. Berks' Retribution of Scyrah

Setting up against Berks' terrifying Ret list.

This was my second game against Berks' list (Kaelyssa, Dawnmower, some knights), and... this was also rough. Given the scenario (The Pit II) and my list, I wasn't able to contest well or engage in attrition, and he just shut me out of scenario by the bottom of turn three. Not the best game for me, but Berks is always a pleasure to play against

I dropped after round four and headed home. I believe Jaden took home first place after another three rounds...

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.

2018 Ticket Takedown Tournament Report

March 31st saw the fourth annual Ticket Takedown - a local Warmachine tournament where first prize is a ticket to Lock & Load up in Bellevue. Happily, I was able to attend for my first tournament in a few months. I brought the following Grymkin lists; not the most competitive, I think, but the easiest for me to play with little practice.

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]

The Heretic, Lights Out

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:

The Storm Division

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:

Karchev Konga Line

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:

King of Beasts

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.

Borka 2 Beast Brick

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.)