Kingdom Con Part: 1 Team Tournament

I just got back from Kingdom con and I figured I should write some of this down. I really enjoyed Kingdom con this year. I got a hotel this time around and wanted to make it more then a one day event and really had a lot more fun with it then last year.    This post is going to be about the team tournament I participated in with Greg.

The Format

• The tournament is 50 points for both players, so that gives us 25 points a piece.
• 10 minute rounds
• Steam roller 2012 scenarios

The Lists

I brought the Mercenaries. The main goal of this list is heavy support/shooting which is polar opposite of Greg's. Also the feat is heavy damage denial which doubles up on Thagrosh1's damage denial.

Fiona the Black (*6pts)

* Mariner (8pts)

* Mariner (8pts)

Long Gunner Infantry (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)

Master Gunner Dougal MacNaile (2pts)

Greg brought Thagrosh1 with heavy beasts. Legion has very heavy hitting beasts and with Thagrosh1 they get very hard to kill very quickly.

Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight (*5pts)

* Angelius (9pts)

* Carnivean (11pts)

* Scythean (9pts)

Blighted Nyss Shepherd (1pts)

The combination of -2 strength, +2 armor animus, a feat of complete denial (-1 dice on everything!), and if they actually kill a beast he just brings it back.

Overall one of our strongest benefits was our opponents have no clue how our army synergies.

Rounds

I'm way too tired to go into heavy details. So every round is just going to have it's major bullet points.

Round 1 vs. Denny2/Saeryn

• Long Gunners with Nonokrion Brand blasted Denny2 off the table on turn 2.
• Saeryn uses his feat + all the bane thralls/knights make the game go a lot longer then we expected.
• Scythean all stars all of the bane thralls tough
• Skarlock kills the shepherd! (didn't really matter but was amusing)
• Finally we assassinate Saeryn with Legion beasts.

Round 2 vs. Barnabas/Ossyan

• Long gunners blast 2 gators off the table with Iron flesh
• Scythean honey badgers into the retribution army tearing down Banshee on turn 2.
• Angelius flails against Phoenix failing miserably
• Barnabus feats + Ossyan feats and they almost kill Thagrosh putting him around 4 points. Only survives because Fiona had feated turn before.
• Greg forgets to heal his Scythean right next too Ossyan - fail turn, enough said.
• Fiona dies after 2 turtle shots + a spell from Barnabus. Luckily it puts Barnabus in charge range of the carnivean.
• Greg redeems himself. Angelius repulses stuff off the carnivean. Carnivean charges and destroys Barnabus.
• Thagrosh1 charges and eats Ossyan

Round 3 vs. Denny1/Sorscha2

• This was absolutely brutal.
• We hid in the corner forcing them to us while long gunners destroyed Nyss Hunters and Great Bears.
• War witch siren locks down Carnivean for 6 rounds with shadow bound. The game went 9 rounds.
• eEyriss shoots the angelius to strip off Denny's crippling grasp. Letting Angelius to charge and destroy nightmare.
• Beast 09 and widowmakers destroy the mariners/long gunners
• Fiona survives 2 turns of windowmakers/kayazy's then finally dies to Sorscha 2 melee assassination.
• Carnivean then eats Sorscha 2 (yes Fiona was bait.... again)
• Finally Thagrosh fights off Kayazy while Scythean and Carnivean chase around Denegra finally killing her.

Greg and I walk away victorious! We had 180 battle points with the next closest team around 120 battle points so they gave us the victory. Was a lot of very hard fought battles with nasty double feats. Great fun!

Later that night...

• We decided to play another game vs. the other team who was undefeated. 
• Mortenebra and Karchev. The tow of Deathjack and Beast 09 was brutal. They kill an angelius. 
• We then feat bring back the angelius and counter punch their face off. 
• Long gunners took care of winter guard.
• They surrender early.

Fiona The Black vs. Absylonia

I hadn't got to play since the blizzard Warmachine/wrath event and everything went as I expected. Terribly. Whenever I take long breaks between playing my skill level drastically drops. Something I think lots of people suffer from. The more experience you have usually the quick you can recover.

I play Fiona The Black as I'm deciding to take a break from my Circle and go back to my Mercs for awhile. I do really love them and have had the most success with them as well! I am a big fan of how bizarre of a list I can make while how effective it can be as well. Mercenaries are the ultimate rogue faction in my opinion. More often the not my opponents will always ask for a few of my cards which includes my caster. This always makes me laugh as that typically gives me a good advantage.

My opponent who is a good friend of mine Greg pulled out his Legion. His typical casters are Thagrosh1 and Absylonia. He is very good at running beast heavy and manipulating them to high effectiveness.

My list was very odd but so is Fiona.

Fiona the Black (*6pts)

* Mariner (8pts)

* Mule (8pts)

* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker (2pts)

Captain Sam MacHorne & the Devil Dogs (Sam and 9 Grunts) (7pts)

* Buccaneer (3pts)

Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)

* Ghordson Driller (6pts)

* Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps Officer & Standard (3pts)

Long Gunner Infantry (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)

Anastasia di Bray (2pts)

Dirty Meg (2pts)

Greg's list was

Absylonia, Terror of Everblight (*5pts)

* Shredder (2pts)

* Angelius (9pts)

* Carnivean (11pts)

* Scythean (9pts)

* Seraph (8pts)

Blighted Nyss Striders (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)

* Blighted Nyss Striders Officer & Musician (3pts)

Blighted Nyss Shepherd (1pts)

Strider Deathstalker (2pts)

Strider Deathstalker (2pts)

The Forsaken (2pts)

My battle plan

The main goal of the army was to shoot my opponent to death. Use roth's mercy on Sam so she'll be the last to die. The brand on long gunners so nobody is save within 14 inches of them. Throw arc node onto Anastasia di Bray because of stealth and parry. Use the driller and Hammerfall High Shields too to take the brunt of my enemies attacks. Pretty basic.

The Scenario

Close quarters

Round 1

I had the first turn and move forward. I didn't move very far forward  as the Striders were going to be in range next turn so my dwarves shield walled.

My opponent seeing that my long gunners were safe behind the dwarven shield wall decided to run around to position himself and threaten Anastasia. The deathstalkers took some shots into the Devil Dogs which I quickly learned why i'm going to love Roth's Mercy. It denies their 2nd shot.

Death Total: Nothing

Round 2

Anastasia repositions herself to arc node into the Striders leader to remove reform from the unit. Fiona then arcs through her blowing up the UA.

The Mariner takes a shot and scatters to take down another Strider. The mule positions himself on the hill near the Devil Dogs. The devil dogs pronto the bucaneer who then charges and takes down a death stalker. The driller then charges and destroys a Strider.

Greg then uses his Scythean to kill the Buccaneer. The striders take a few cra's into the dwarves. The Angelius then gets slip streamed and slams into the mule perfectly boxing it.

Death Total: Death Stalker, 3 Striders, Buccaneer, 2 Hammerfall, Mule

Round 3

The dwarves and long gunners do some CRA's into the Angelius destroying it. The mule missess the shepherd but the scatter connects and kills him. Sam takes a shot killing another Deathstalker. I also pop my feat this turn.

Greg then decides to aim with the Carnivean and spray into the dwarves which all missed since he was in Fiona's feat range. Then the Scythean engaged the Devil dogs and missed because of Fiona's feat. The Striders and Seraph took a few shots killing a few more dwarves.

Death Total: More dead striders and hammer fall. Angelius, and Deathstalker.

Round 4

I open up 2 CRA's into the Carnivean from the Long gunners while the dwarves who barely have anything left move up and shoot at the Striders more with the driller engaging a few. The Devil Dogs knock down the Scythean but fail to roll any substantial damage. Sam then takes an aimed hand cannon killing the forsaken.

The scythean frenzies killing a devil dog. Greg then feats healing up all his beasts. The Carnivean charges into the Mariner doing some damage but over all the dice rolls failed him.  The seraph moves up and kills 2 long gunners.

Death Total: Devil dogs, Striders, hammer fall, long gunners, forsaken.

Round 5

With Greg in my face I give 3 focus to the Mariner and starts to beat on the Carnivean. The Long Gunners with a nuke from Fiora blast the Seraph off the table. The Devil dogs keep beating on the Scythean knocking him down again.

Greg eats a free strike on  his Carnivean and engages Fiora. With abysmal rolls only does 6 damage to her. This required his warlock to be moved up. Giving me a serious assassination attempt. More other non important stuff dies. Scythean tramples over to try and protect Absylonia.

Death Total: Devil dogs, Hammer fall including leader (only standard left), Seraph, Strider (gogo uncontrolled Shredder)

Round 6

I do 2 8 man CRAs into Absylonia then move up a 3 focused Mariner killing her.

Conclusion

Overall I really like Fiora but the list wasn't what I expected. The dwarves are way too slow and with how her feat works I really think some more jam units would be better. I like how Sam's unit performed, very versatile. Here is the next list I'm going to try. Adding the Mule to the Devil dogs for Pronto.

Fiona the Black (*6pts)

* Mariner (8pts)

Captain Sam MacHorne & the Devil Dogs (Sam and 9 Grunts) (7pts)

* Buccaneer (3pts)

* Mule (8pts)

Long Gunner Infantry (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)

Steelhead Halberdiers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)

Steelhead Halberdiers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)

Anastasia di Bray (2pts)

Dirty Meg (2pts)

Ragman (2pts)

Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (2pts)

Reserves:

Min Steelhead Cavalry

Stannis

My complete collection of WARMACHINE/HORDES

I'm moving soon to a new place still in Orange County and decided to spend a day reorganizing all of my models. Thought it would be fun to get it all together and take a picture.

Close up of minions

Close up of Circle

Close up of Skorne and Retribution - Nicole's forces

Close up of Mercs

Close up of Cygnar - cut off some Rangers and Kraye

Close up of Trolbloods

This showed me two things.

1. I'm crazy.
2. I have lots of painting to do.

Wrath/Domination Event!

Going to do this post a little differently then my past one's. I'm going to mainly leave the space for pictures and leave writing to a minimum. Though I'll help the story arc with captions. Though overall I played 6 games in 6 hours and had a blast. Found both the scenarios really should've been tested further and were very open to exploitation. Since it is a one off event that isn't competitive it didn't ruin my fun at all. The players were a real joy and no weird rules disputes or unclean play to be seen from my opponents. Overall I had a blast! Now to the pictures.

Khador and Cryx set up for battle in there first game!

Two entertaining lists battle out in the Domination scenario.

Trollbloods go up against one of our 3 Legion players, the most played faction that day.

pStryker vs. Kaleyssa - wow Jay had spent some serious time on figuring out how to 2 turn win this one. :P

Barnabus charges across the no mans land into incoming Legion forces!

This is me pondering if I could kill Mortenebra with only electro leaps. Go double strider lists!

Rhyas is moments from decapitating poor Sorscha with a 26 damage after armor roll!

Mike's awesome painted Legion.

Constance slams into the Trollbloods!

Look at the Thunder pig on the left and ignore Stryker being eaten on the right!

This is me finally being fed up with losing with pStryker and cheesing the scenario for a win on turn 3.

Merc's being lead by our Press Ganger Doug.

Few dice down games at the end of the day.

Awesome paint job by Steve. Such an amazing tongue! Keep staring until you get it.

Week 2 of Journeyman League

Paul's Denegra

Week 2 is upon us and it started out with a really fun Friday night.  We had lots of games going on and people showing up with painted models to show off, all in all a good gaming session.

To start off Paul showed up with a really killer Machine Wraith that my picture doesn't give any justice, sorry Paul!  Paul also finished up his Warwitch Denegra, earning him 3 points for painting.

   I finished up a pair of my Gun Boars, they've definitely earned their paint job throughout the course of the week.  Those pow 13 guns are not to be understimated!  I have been blessed with some nice caster shots and a few devastating blows to crucial warjacks.  They did fail me tonight vs. Bart, but only after using all the good ammunition vs. Paul's Cryx, but i'll dive into that as we approach the battle reports.

Paul's machine wraith

Pair of Carver Gun Boars

Kreoss vs. Stryker

I admittedly didn't watch this game in heavy detail.  I can point out some of the highlights as I was battling Cryx on the table next to it.  Dave our Menoth player kept advancing into the guns of Cygnar trying to take advantage of his arc node.

While Eric kept blasting away with his charger and black 13th, as well as his own arc node on the lancer!  The powerful shot ability on the charger landed some damage early on and racked up some damage boxes on Menoth as they advanced.

As the armies started to collide it seemed the Cygnar army was impervious with Strykers feat +5 armor, and Arcane Shield +3 armor on the Ironclade.  Taking him to a massive 26 armor, which is typically unheard of in Warmachine!

Dave was not to be daunted though as his crusader began picking up and chucking Eric's warjacks in a nearby shallow lake extinguishing the furnaces!  It was both hilarious and mournful as Stryker's forces who've been doing so well are being defeated by body of calm cool water.

The battle ended with Kreoss taking home victory for Menoth.

Carver vs. Denegra

 This battle was truly about the Gun Boars as they opened up with a nice hit on one of Paul's bone jacks.  Paul retaliated by spraying and applying corrosion to half of my army.  Though the rest of the damage hits were mitigated by Batten Down the Hatches.  Such an amazing spell.

As the Cryx army rushed to calm the thunderous shots of the Gun Boars one Bone Jack bit the dust.  Once engaged quagmire on one of the Gun Boars helped mitigate the high defense of the Cryx jacks.  Though the one Death Ripper that closed in on a Gun Boar proceeded to heavily damage the pig.  With the mighty 20 armor the Gun Boar survived.

Carver decided to end this now as he saw his pigs taking a heavy toll.  With the help of his feat Carver charged the Slayer and landed a devastating blow.  This was followed up by a pair of Gun Boars battering the Slayer to dust freeing the War Hog to run off to engage Denegra.

Denegra being immune to free strikes (Doh!) backed away from the War Hog and proceed to shadow bind, parasite and bash the War Hog landed very powerful hits.

Though Denegra had lost too many much and Carver applied  lots of pressure as the Gun Boars finished off the Bone Jacks and Carver moved into position to charge next turn.  Denegra seeing her army disintegrate before her took solice in destroying Carver's War Hog before finally getting cut down by Carver's weapon, The Hand of God.

Bart vs. Legion

I didn't watch this battle at all honestly.  Only thing I noticed as I glanced over was Bart had removed all of Legions army and had put 12 solid points of damage on Lylth.  With Lylth's dying breath she landed a powerful bow shot, followed by a parasite and another bow shot to do enough damage to fell Bart (and Carver) has yet to pass a single tough check in the league so far.

Sorscha vs. Denegra

I only caught the highlights of this battle after it had ended.  Sorscha's crazy threat range of 19 inches got her into melee with Denegra and her trusty hammer Frostfang finished the job.

Carver vs. Bart


Going into this battle 1 to 1 a real grudge match has been a brooding.  Carver taking the first turn runs forward with everything except Carver who casts Batten Down the Hatches.

Bart using his superior range takes a shot with his Mariner landing one damage point to a Gun Boar.  The Gun Boars retaliated doing some damage to the Buccaneer and Freebooter.

Mariner taking a 2nd round shot blasts into Carver doing 4 points of damage.  The Freebooter charges into the War Hog doing really nice damage considering it was dice minus 7, but failing to hit with the grab and smash allowing to do its free two handed throw, the bane of the war hog's existence!

Carver calls his feat and charges the Freebooter.  I pick up my four dice happy to roll this devastating blow and see the dice come up 1 ... 2 ... 2 ... 3.  I did 3 points of damage to the Freebooter!  This throws off the rest of my plans the turn and I proceed to take a few pot shots off with the Gun Boars and attack the Freebooter with the War Hog who doesn't finish it off.  (I forgot to mention Bart's minus 3 to hit on feat turn is rough!)  Seeing a charge lane from Bart to Carver all be it too late.  Targ decides to eat the bullet and runs in front of Carver.

The next turn is humorous.  Dougle fires off his Quad Iron and misses with snake eyes.  The Mariner then deciding to kill off Targ to open the charge lane fires killing Targ, who decides to be too tough for a cannon ball and lies down instead (passed tough). The Buccaneer having enough moves up and skewers Targ's body on the ground.  With the charge lane free Bart charges Carver.

Bart lands two solid attacks on Carver who shrugs one off to a beast. (His 1 and only transfer)  Carver sitting at 13 def 20 armor with 5 hit points left thinks he'll survive the round to get his revenge on Bart!  Bart spend his last focus hits.  Picking up two dice we do a quick calculation of the odds.  Bart is pow 14, Carver is armor 20, with 5 hit points left.  Bart needs to roll a 11 or 12 to finish off the pig.  Nicole picks up the dice rolls them on the table and lands double 6's.  I am sweating now.  All I need is a tough check, I pick up my die and roll it, 3.  Game over Bart, you win this time but I'll get my revenge!

Recap of the Journeyman League Totals

Cryx                                      11pts

Cryx

Legion                                   5pts

Merc - Pirates                      19pts

Minions - Thornfall                20pts

Minions - Blindwater             4pts

Khador                                 10pts

Cygnar                                  2pts

Cygnar

Menoth                                  3pts

Circle                                    6pts

Circle

Skorne                                  3pts

Retribution

As it's nearing 3 I'm going to wrap this one as I'm tired.  Though I have got Carver nearly done, so look for an update this weekend with my warlock finally done!  Maybe that's the edge Bart has had all a long!

Lather, Rinse and Repeat - Day 2 of Journeyman League

Saturday a group of people for the Journeyman League got together to play some more games.  Two of our players who haven't got games in yet showed up.  Here are a few brief battle reports plus a more detailed one of one of the more epic battles.

Bart vs. Denny

I didn't watch this game in heavy detail except for the ending.  At the end it only only Bart and a mariner vs. Denny.  Denny kept shadow binding the mariner.  Bart finally landed the killing blow after a couple back and forth rounds.  Denny's low mat made it hard for her to win out in a fight vs. Bart who has great melee stats at 15 def 16 armor.

Sorscha vs. Denny

I wasn't there at all for this game.  I was on a pizza run.  Sorscha won with a feat turn assassination run onto Denny with wind rush.

Carver vs. Sorscha

This game was actually really slow and boring so I'll keep it brief.  It was a shoot off, gun boars vs. destroyer. Once the gun boars showed they were going to win Sorscha started doing hit and runs with wind rush.  War hog got a charge off on the juggernaut removing it from the table and with some exceptional shooting I forced Sorscha to come to me.  She failed to kill the war hog by one and died to him on the following turn.

Bart vs. Sorscha

Turn 1 - Mercs

The jack's walked forward with Bart casting Batten Down the Hatches (BDH) and throwing Hot Shot onto the mariner. (Boosted damage rolls)

Turn 1 - Sorscha

Sorscha's battle group advanced under the protection of fog of war.

Turn 2 - Mercs

Bart upkept Hot Shot.  The buccaneer moved forward and attempted to net the destroyer, but fail short.  The freebooter walked up to be able to counter charge anyone who attacked the buccaneer.  Mariner stayed where it was taking an aiming bonus against the destroyer.  The shot hit but did no damage.  Bart broadsided to get another shot out of the mariner and popped his feat(she realizes this was a mistake in hindsight).

Turn 2 - Khador

Sorscha upkept fog of war. The destroyer opened the turn by firing and removing the net arm off of the buccaneer. The juggernaut moved forward in front of Sorscha who then cast wind rush to go up to defense 18.

Turn 3 - Mercs

Bart upkept hot shot.  The buccaneer ran in between the juggernaut and the destroyer locking both into combat and taking a wild pow 10 attack at the destroyer.  The freebooter moved to block a charge lane to Bart.  The mariner fired at the juggernaut doing minimal damage.  Bart then cast BDH.

Turn 3 - Khador

Fog of war finally dropped.  Sorscha casted boundless charge onto the juggernaut, wind rush onto sorscha and then feated and caught all of Bart's battle group in the feat. The destroyer shot the mariner and splashed damage onto Bart, though only doing minimal damage to both. Juggernaut charged the freebooter and was just barely out of charge range.

Turn 4 - Mercs

Bart spent 3 focus to shrug off stationary on everyone except the buccaneer.  Spent another focus to upkeep hot shot. Bart moved up, then the mariner moved up into base to base with Bart  and fired off a shot into the juggernaut missing.  The freebooter stepped up to the juggernaut hit twice doing minimal damage then landed a 2handed throw, but lost in the strength test vs. the juggernaut.

Turn 4 - Khador

Sorscha kept all of her focus.  Sorscha cast wind rush then proceeded to charge Bart. Sorscha did 6 points of damage to Bart and sat on 1 focus.  Never count out Sorscha though, defense 18 is hard to crack. The destroyer fired at the mariner doing 2 more points of damage to Bart and some damage to the mariner but no systems were crippled for Barts battle group yet. The juggernaut moved up and smashed into the freebooter, but spread out the damage so no systems were crippled.

Turn 5 - Mercs

This turn the game got really  quirky.  3 focus went to the freebooter and Bart sat on 3.  The mariner swung at Sorscha missing. Bart moved up boosted to hit and missed and then decided to camp the last two focus. The freebooter successfully hit both initials on the juggernaut doing only minimal damage, and with the grab and smash rule took a 2handed throw attempt again. This time succeeding and targeting Sorscha with her own juggernaut. The attack missed scattering directly into the middle of Sorscha, Bart, and the mariner.  Moving the smaller casters.  Bart didn't get knocked down due to being moved into base to base with the mariner who has the lash rule.  This knocked down Sorscha and the juggernaut, the juggernaut didn't have any crippled systems. The buccaneer moved up and engaged the destroyer.

Turn 5 - Khador

Sorscha paid to stand herself up leaving her with 5 focus.  Sorscha with reach bought and boosted two unsuccessful attacks.  The third attack connected putting Bart down to four health! The juggernaut stood up forfeiting his movement.  Took a swing with his axe missing and then took a swing with the fist connecting!  Though the damage roll didn't go in Khador's favor only doing 2 damage to Bart leaving him at 2 hit points! The destroyer took a freestrike from the buccaneer doing nothing and fired at the mariner hoping to splash damage onto Bart.  The attack missed and scattered onto Sorscha, mariner, and juggernaut doing 1 point to Sorscha leaving her at 4 hit points!

Turn 6 - Mercs

Bart allocated 3 focus to the freebooter, 1 to the mariner and left 2 on Bart.  The freebooter moved up with a backstrike swung on Sorscha with a boost needed an 8 and missed.  The second attack found its mark and with a boosted damage roll of 1 .... 1 ... then a 5.  Doing enough damage and ending the game!  The craziest game I've seen yet in our Journeyman League.

First painted model of the Journeyman league!

FIRST PAINTED MODEL!

While I was writing this my wife painted up her warcaster.

We also have our first painted model of the league!  Captain Bartolo Montadoor, congrats Nicole.