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I hates me some Khador.

I took my eStryker list, and it just got chewed up. I used the advance move on my Stormblades, and I’m not sure why. I know better than to use them as a speartip, and as they advanced Eyriss and the mortars chewed them up completely. Widowmakers tore up my advancing sword knights and the Drakun charged Rowdy. Long story short: on round three eVlad feats, widowmakers sneak through a gap and shoot eStryker to death. I think I managed to kill one IFP. Blegh.

Game 2: vs. Scott’s Menoth (Scenario: No Man's Land)

I decided that the eStryker list was going back into the case until I had some time playtest it. I would be finishing the rest of the tourney with my Siege list. For this game I would be playing Scott and his Protectorate list, which included (from what I remember) eSeverius and the Hierophant, a Revenger, a full unit of Exemplar Vengers, a unit of Idrians + UA, a unit of zealots with the Monolith Bearer, Vilmon, Gorman, the Piper and DeBray.

Of course, DeBray deployed in the middle of the table, denying me the ability to deploy my trenchers there. I ended up having to deploy them on my far right flank, directly across from his vengers. That was okay with me – my worst nightmare with this list is having calvary wrap around into my backfield. I was hoping the trenchers would be good enough to serve as a tarpit and at least slow down his cav (which, they managed to do for the entire game). I pretty confident that my Sword Knights could take the middle, but I underestimated the speed and toughness of the Idrians, who had outrageous defense through some combination of spells and buffs.

On turn three I went in for the assassination, using Illumination to get LOS through Gorman’s smoke cloud, feating, and letting the rockets fly. The first one took eSevy to within 4 boxes, but I missed with the second (Reinholdt provided) shot! In response, I got black oil in the face from Gorman, assuring that more rockets wouldn’t be coming next round. Suddenly glad I took the Defender, I loaded the jack with focus, stuck him in a gap and shot the old man in the face for the win.

Game 3: Tony’s Cryx (Scenario: Mosh Pit)

The third game was definitely the most enjoyable of the day. The armies were well matched, my opponent was a really nice guy, and we duked it out something fierce. He brought a eGoreshade list with Bane Thralls, Tartarus, bile thralls, Slaughterborn and a unit of Bloodgorgers, two or three bone jacks, the Nightmare, the Withershadow, a Scarlock, and probably some other crap that I’m forgetting.

This time my trenchers managed to advance-deploy the way I wanted them to, and ended up popping smoke most of the game to fend off the Sudden Death-fueled counter charges of the Bane Thralls. I was lucky enough to experience, for the first time, the joy of the bile thrall purge, with two well-placed purges killing off most of my trenchers and a fair number of sword knights. Tony had amazing luck with his tough rolls on the Bloodgorgers, and I ended up having to kill most of them three or four times, allowing them to swamp my Sword Knights for most of the game. The Nightmare managed to sneak into my back lines through some crazy, cryxian bullshit (Phantom Hunter + Spectral Curse), and made me very happy that I had taken the bokur, who made short work of it (it had already been worked over by the sword knights pretty well, which explains why Siege survived in the first place).

The end of the last game. Mosh Pit in red.

This game finally ended when time ran out. We both had about half of our armies sitting off the side of the table, as the killing had been fierce. I ended up winning because I had more VPs in the Mosh Pit (9 vs. his 7), but I think I got pretty damn lucky, because things were falling apart fast for me. Had he been aware of the time, he could have probably killed me outright. Still, a win is a win, and I’ll take what I can get.

Wrap-Up

So, that’s another tournament under my belt! I didn’t place, but I did finish with a 2-1 winning record, which makes me happy. I took Best of Cygnar, but as the only Cygnar player there, I pretty much had that locked up when I walked in the door. I definitely need to get back to playing more regularly to keep the rust off. I used to play on Sundays, but with summer camping trips I need to work out something else. I still think my eStryker list has some potential, but I need to play it in some friendly games before I attempt it again in such a competitive setting.

Also, you can check out Ghettokore Studios for a less one sided version of the tourney...

Labels: Hordes, miniatures, wargaming, Warmachine