Orccon - Road to Gen Con Tournament

This last Saturday I had the opportunity to play in the Road to gencon tournament at orccon. It was 50 point tournament that hit max size of 32 people. I'd like to start by saying thanks to Robyn and Anthony for running it. It ran very smoothly.

The Crew
 I went with three of my friends Chris, Greg and Steve. Chris showed up with Cryx using his Mortenebra and Goreshade 2 lists. Greg brought Protectorate of Menoth using Severius 2 and harbinger lists. Steve brought Legion of Everblight using Kallus and Lylith 1 lists. I brought my Circle Oboros with Baldur 1 and Morvhanna.

Chris went 1 -3 loss / win / loss / loss
Greg went 2 -2 loss / win / loss / win
Steve went 3 -1 loss / win / win / win
I went 2 -2  win / loss / win / loss

The Lists
Even though I brought two lists I stuck with my Morvhanna list the entire tournament, which I had never played before. I really thought the list was strong and it showed very well in my games. Even battles I had lost were close or was one good dice roll away from winning.

Baldur the Stonecleaver (*6pts)
* Megalith (10pts)
* Woldguardian (8pts)
* Woldguardian (8pts)
Druids of Orboros (Leader and 5 Grunts) (7pts)
* Druid of Orboros Overseer (2pts)
Sentry Stone (Leader and 3 Manikins) (3pts)
Sentry Stone (Leader and 3 Manikins) (3pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
* Stone keeper (1pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
Stoneward and 5 Woldstalkers (5pts)
Stoneward and 5 Woldstalkers (5pts)

Morvahna the Autumnblade (*6pts)
* Woldwatcher (5pts)
* Woldguardian (9pts)
* Woldguardian (9pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
* Stone keeper (1pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
Tharn Bloodtrackers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Nuala the Huntress (2pts)
Wolves of Orboros (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Wolf of Orboros Officer & Standard (2pts)
Blackclad Wayfarer (2pts)
Gudrun the Wanderer (3pts)
Wolflord Morraig (5pts)

The Games

Game 1

Morvhanna vs. Borka

I had really anticipated him picking his other list, because Borka is very much a grind fest. That being said Morvhanna is a master at grinding. We had a great battle of attrition in the end though I was able to jam more points into the objective.

His major infantry unit that seemed to be the back bone of his army was a full unit of fennblades. On the turn they charged they didn't do enough damage and moved too far ahead to receive iron flesh again. I took this opportunity to destroy most of the unit that then broke for 2 turns.

With his major unit gone we did a beast trade of Wold Guardian for Mauler, leaving Mulg and another Wold Guardian to stare each other down. While my wold watcher played tar pit to a unit of burrowers. In the end only Borka was in the objective while I had a unit of WoO, Morraig, Shifting stones and Morvhanna.

Game 2

Morvhanna vs. Krueger 1

I had never played against Circle before being the only one in my local meta. Though I know the faction well enough to know Morvhanna was a terrible choice and I thought I'd be able to attrition through his feat and chain lightning. What I missed was the bloodweavers in his list that offer him dispel. Very foolish of me.

We played the scenario where you have 3 flags in the middle and 1 of them disappears.

It started out as I had anticipated with lots of heavy charges then followed by a dispel on my regrowth unit. I had hoped he would over extend and misplay the objectives as it was my only chance of winning this match up. I put my wold watcher in the middle to tar pit again and my wold guardians to the right flag. This all worked as plan.

My next step of the plan was to use my WoO and Morraig to counter punch the left objective. I only needed them to clear it for 1 turn to get me 1 objective point to win me the game. I used my mini feat of making my WoO weapon masters and charged a Feral with 3 plus Morraig. All 4 hit, but to my dismay I only did a paltry 4 damage.

The scenario ended with me up 2-0 on objective points and Morvhanna assassinated. I think that match up is winnable, I just need to be much more careful in the future.

Game 3

Morvhanna vs. Amon

This was a serious grind fest. My opponent was using 2 vanquishers, 2 reckoners, 2 repenters and a devout.  I was able to alpha strike him first and tore off 2 reckoner melee weapons and damaged their cortexes. He then punched back pretty hard but I threw restoration on my front most Wold Guardian putting him up to armor 22. He eventually killed it through synergy and his feat. But in the end armor 22 wold guardians and regrowthed Tharn Bloodtrackers were too much for him.

Game 4

Morvhanna vs. Irusk

This game I played very badly and my opponent played very well. That being said the scenario gave me zero chance. He jammed me with defense 16 iron fang and Kayazy assassins on his feat turn being immune to knock down and tough on a 4 up. Then proceeded to score 3 objective points to my 1. Just needing to contest your opponents zone and hold yours for control points is a jam lists dream.

Conclusion

I definitely had a great time at the tournament. I learned a lot about Circle and the new steam roller 2012 scenarios. The kind of lists I should expect at least in this local meta. But here I think it's best to do a simple bullet point of things I learned.

• You need 1 list that offers solid shooting
• Most scenarios are winnable (last year there were a lot of dead scenarios where you ended up just playing caster kill)
• Most people know to kill off 1 of your shifting stones
• Don't play Morvhanna vs. lists that have any dispel capabilities (already knew this 1, but decided to learn it the hard way anyway)
• Morvhanna is amazing vs. Trolls
• Practice the scenarios before the tournament. Even if it makes sense reading it you need to fight over it to understand it better.
• Bring two very different lists to force your opponent a touch decision. My lists were far too similar.
• Bring dispel capabilities and something to deal with high defense. If in only 1 list.