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| No.2, soon wing Road, Soon Wing Industrial Building, #05-05 |
Okay, this was held on Feb 2nd but I'm only just putting the batrep up now. Warning, Wall of TEXT ahead.
The even began at 10am on a Saturday. Which meant I had to wake up pretty early to get over there. Also, it was a 50 point event which made it even more troublesome for me since I had to suddenly get another 30 points of models painted and ready -_- Unlike the previous SR tournament I went, I decided to try and go with eSorscha as my backup list instead.
Also, lots of colossals were seen in this tournament. At least 40% of the participants had a colossal in one list. One guy even had TWO stormwalls with Haley. That's a lot of stormwalls. His other caster was eCaine so that wasn't much better either.
For my first battle, I drew off against another Khador player. His two lists were eButcher and Harkevich iirc. I was wondering which to take against him because against eButcher, Sorscha's infantry heavy list is going to be a pretty bad match-up. So in the end, I took Vlad3, one of my staples.
Battle #1
Khador
Vlad3
-wardog
-Drago
GunCarriage
Mortar
Mortar
Widowmakers
Yuri
Manhunter
Manhunter
Uhlans
Markov
Fenris
Khador
eButcher
-Spriggan
-wardog
Yuri Manhunter
Mortar
Kovnik Joe
Widowmakers
IFP with UA
Man-o-War Shocktroopers
Great Bears
This list packs a punch.
We end up playing Scenario #1 in the SR2013 format. He wins deployment so he ends up going first. I've deployed my units so that my mortars can shoot towards his densely populated areas.
Turn 1
-He runs everything up. His goal is to try and reach the scenario and prevent me from reaching it as well by blocking me with infantry. His widowmakers move up and try to shoot my mortar crew but most of them are out of range. His great bears hide behind his shocktroopers and use them as a screen. Mortar crew runs up and Joe gives them fearless and tough.
+Vlad activates first. He casts Infernal Machine on Drago, casts dash and then Hand of Fate on Uhlans. Then he moves up. I don't want to get too close at the time and I rather wait for the right moment before going on. Manhunter #1 runs up to block Fenris again. It's a delaying tactic but it's better than letting Fenris charge or impact. Yuri goes into the zone to try and contest it in case anything happens. Widowmakers shoot his mortar crew but they pass 1 tough roll and end up being KDed. Uhlans move backwards to try and keep some distance. Mortar crew and GC aims towards the widowmakers and constantly try to hit them with AOEs. It works and kills off half the unit.
Turn 2
-He retaliates by sniping my mortar crew with his surviving widowmakers. One actually misses so I've still got part of one mortar left. Fenris makes short work of the manhunter blocking him while Kovnik Joe gives boosted attack rolls and moves up to shoot one of the manhunters. It fails to hit. His spriggan advances forward and shoots a flare at Yuri. The shocktroopers than move up in shieldwall formation and try to shoot Yuri. It's not likely to hit and it doesn't. Meanwhile Butcher and the great bears continue following behind the shocktroopers, using them as neat meat shields. The IFP run/charge the GC but they are out of range. However they do get relentless charge which means they ignore all that pesky rough terrain I laid down. Damn. However, this also means they're NOT in shieldwall formation since he didn't feat. Not really sure why but I think he was going to save it for a better moment. Turns out, there will be no better moment.
+My mortar crew continues firing into the midst of the Widowmakers. It deviates and ends up killing some IFP instead. Widowmakers shoot Fenris but don't manage to dismount him. Yuri sees a possible assassination vector but it requires him to walk past several units. Vlad3 casts dash and Yuri 'dashes' off. He manages to go into the gap left between the ST and the Spriggan and threshers about. Unfortunately, he's still in the front arc so the ST and Spriggan still gets their shield bonus. But he does manage to hit Butcher. Doesn't do enough damage though. Yuri's a dead man next turn but hopefully he'll stall them. Fenris charges his Fenris and kills it. Manhunter #2 runs to the zone to control it. As does Drago. With 2 units there, it would prevent him from killing both and then controlling the zone next turn. Especially since one of them is a jack. GC chargesthe IFP, kills the one he charges and then shoots at the ST to delay them even further and some of the remaining IFP. The IFP are decimated. I gain 1 point for controlling the zone.
Turn 3
-He moves his units forward to try and contest the zone. Yuri dies a painful death to the Great Bears. The manhunter dies to a combination of the Spriggan's flare, the launcher and Kovnik Joe with boosted attack rolls. His ST continue moving in shieldwall formation but this time they're actually close enough to contest the zone. Just barely though. His IFP charge my GC and deal some damage to it but not enough. Widowmakers finish off the Mortar and try to shoot the wardog but I manage to make my tough roll. Butcher runs off the side.
+3 focus goes onto Drago. Drago charges the enemy objective, kills it and then kills a nearby ST with his focus. I don't bother checking to see if Drago blows up because I still NEED the jack around. Markov charges a nearby IFP and kills it. Vlad3 feats, moves up and casts dash. He's now in the zone. My uhlans charge towards the ST and even with HOF up, the ST are incredibly hard to kill with shieldwall up. I do manage to clear the zone however so that's that but I don't manage to kill everything I charge. The Uhlans who killed something then regroup so they can counter charge again. The GC charges an IFP and uses the 2" movement from the sidestep to move even more forward and aims for the ST and butcher. I plan to make it so that he will have a hard time moving forward without casting boundless charge. My worry is that he will roll a 6 for focus and then feat, ravager and go through my uhlans to reach Vlad. It's a slim chance but it's still possible. Fenris impacts the WG, kills it and goes onto the Great Bears. He kills 2 of them. Widowmakers shoot the Spriggan to try and down it's shield arm. I gain 1 point for killing the objective and 2 points for dominating the zone with my caster. That leaves me at 4/5 points needed to win.
Turn 4
-Enemies to the left of him. Enemies to the right of him. Butcher rolls a 3, so no assassination for him. The remaining Great Bear dismounts Fenris. The ST and the Spriggans kill off my Uhlans and damage Drago a bit. They also move close enough to contest the zone. He tries to kill off the GC with his IFP and widowmakers but it doesn't work due to some bad rolls. Kovnik Joe continues trying to kill widowmakers.
+I need 1 point to win and there are a lot of ways I can get it. I could destroy the objective, dominate the zone or go for caster kill. Butcher is out in the open with at least 2 assassination vectors to him; Fenris and Markov. I give 3 focus to Drago again and this time he charges the spriggan and the spriggan goes down. As does 1 ST due to bloodbath. Markov charges butcher and hits with all his attacks. It's not enough to kill him though. He's no eSorscha. My GC charges the last ST and wipes it off the board. The zone is now free. But I'm not satisfied. I charge the remaining objective with my uhlans who then obliterate it. Vlad 3 casts dash and walks over to dominate the zone again. Fenris then charges Butcher without having to worry about the free strike from the great bear. End result, dead butcher.
Thoughts on game
My opponent should have run his STs up more instead of moving them up in shieldwall. Or charged more. Overall I think it was bad positioning. By placing his IFP to the right, he made it so that they had to travel a longer distance to reach the zone. It may have been better to position them in the center as a block, followed by the ST and the IFP should have just run the first turn and charged/feated the 2nd turn so they could be within the zone and contest it on the 2nd turn. Instead, it took too long for his ST to reach the zone, which allowed me to secure it for turn 2-3. All the rough terrain templates I was throwing around didn't help their speed any either -_- Same thing with the Spriggan. Overall, very cautious play by the opponent which led to his downfall.
At this point I walk around to take a look at the other matches. I see the 2 stormwall list being dismantled by Behemoth and eSorscha.
Right, so this is a sparring match against my usual Cryx opponent. His list is either eGaspy or Terminus. I take out my eSorscha list against it. Bad choice.
Battle #2
Khador
eSorscha
-Devastator
-Demolisher
-Sylyss
Winterguard with UA
Kovnik Joe
Kayazy Assassins with Underboss
Rifle Corps
Aiyana and Holt
Manhunter
Manhunter
Cryx
Terminus
-Reaper
Mechanithralls
Mechanithralls
Bile Thralls
Withershadow Combine
Bane Thralls
Necrosurgeon
Necrosurgeon
Darragh Wrathe
Right, he wins deployment again and he chooses to go first. I've picked 2 devastator chasis jacks for this because I realised the conquest moves too slowly without running and running requires me to give up 5 potential AOEs, which is also painful to do.
We end up playing SR2013, Scenario 12.
Turn 1
-He runs everything up.
+I run everything up. Including the 2 warjacks. My goal is to try and reach the zones/flags and contest them with the jacks. I make sure to space out my infantry evenly and keep my Rifle Corps behind the Kayazy so they can shoot. Winterguard go up the right side to try and flank them.
Turn 2
-He runs everything up again. This time spreading things out so he can cover both zones/flags. This will probably be slightly hard for me since I lack the means to contest too much and his bilethrall purge will mean more souls and armor for his caster. His mechanithralls contact some of my WG which means I can't spray with them.
+So I end up doing the stupid thing. I see that it IS possible to reach Terminus with the Kayazy and eSorscha and possibly some WG as well. And I end up trying to assassinate with eSorscha. Personally. First I try to hit with Aiyana and Holt. And fail. Then with eSorscha. I manage to crit freeze him and spend every focus on hitting him. After that the Kayazy, those that can reach him anyway. After everything is done, he's left with 8 health but he's STILL alive.
Turn 3
-Um...he kills eSorscha -_-
Thoughts on game
Okay, looking back at this game after a week, I have only one thing to say. WTF was I on at the time???? I have no idea why but I felt really pressured during this game but it might have been better to let him gain the 2 points from the scenario instead of trying to assassinate him on such a long shot and FAIL. I would love to claim I was high but I wasn't.
Could possibly have played an attrition game with him with the 2 warjacks constantly contesting the zone.
Anyway, my game ends pretty early so I end up walking around and looking at the others game. There was a particular close one with an eCaine vs Madrak match-up. eCaine almost managed to assassinate Madrak; who was out of fury, and managed to do enough damage to kill him on the very last hit on feat turn but Madrak rolled his tough -_- Poor eCaine died the next turn.
Battle #3
Right, another Khador vs Khador match-up. His 2 lists are Zerkova and eButcher. I should pick Vlad3 but I've played against both his eButcher and Zerkova list with Vlad3 before so I went with eSorscha.
Khador
eSorscha
-Devastator
-Demolisher
-Sylyss
Winterguard with UA
Kovnik Joe
Kayazy Assassins with Underboss
Rifle Corps
Aiyana and Holt
Manhunter
Manhunter
Khador
eButcher
-Behemoth
-Beast 09
-Spriggan
-Juggernaut
-Juggernaut
Doomreavers
Great Bears
Ogrun Bokur
Drakhun
He wins deployment so he goes first. We're playing Scenario #5.
Turn 1
-He runs everything up.
+I run everything up. The right most flag disappears, which means my manhunter is useless over there.
Turn 2
-He moves up even more. Beast09 and the Great bears go for the left flag while a huge chunk of warjacks go for the centre one.
+My Kayazy charge his warjacks. One of the Juggernauts to be precise. I didn't have IF cast on them, which allows them to charge. Unfortunately, this move also leaves them open to a counter-charge by the Drakhun and he manages to impact and kill a few of them. After the charge, I cast IF on the Kayazy. Meanwhile, I'm trying to snipe the Great Bears with the Rifle Corps but it's not working too well. The Demolisher is running back to the centre objective after his previous one disappeared. No points are scored by anyone.
Turn 3
-Butcher gets ravager on himself and tries to kill some Kayazy but even he has issues hitting def 19 IFed Kayazy. His ravager also moves him out of range from Ogrun Bokur; who also charged a Kayazy during his turn. He does manage to clear a path though. Which means he will be on focus 7 the next turn. This is not something I want. His warjacks charge up and Beast09 threshers several of my rifle corps to hell.
+At this time I try to assassinate again. I move up, cast Freezing grip on Beast 09 so that I can shoot Butcher with the quadgun. I feat, shoot with the quadgun. Then the Kayazy charge him. And then the Winterguard try to shoot him. At the end, he's left with 8hp as well. There's something about the number 8....
Turn 4
-Beast 09 gets 3 focus, he spends 1 to shake stationary off. He boosts attack roll with his imprint. He says hello to Sorscha. Sorscha dies.
Thoughts on game
I may have to stop playing Sorscha like an assassination caster -_- Anyway, I was having a bit of trouble with his list due to the sheer amount of warjacks in it. And me having very little armor cracking capability (Conquest would have been useful in this one instance) Plus once Butcher got 7 focus on himself, I definitely wouldn't have been able to touch him that turn and it might have been worse if he feated as well. Hence my attempt to assassinate him rather than play a game of attrition with him.
Thoughts on tournament
Well, that's pretty much it for the tournament. Had fun, was quite tired at the end of it because this is the first 50 point tournament I've had and for someone who's more used to 35 point games, there's a huge jump in pointage as well as playstyle for 50 point games. For 35 point tournaments, 3 rounds seem kind of short, but for 50 point tournaments, 3 rounds is VERY long -_-.
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