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Monday 9 December 2013

WarmaHordes Team Tournament Singapore 2013

Probably one of the biggest events we've had in recent years. 20 participants, 4 teams, One winner.



Lists can be found here; I'm team 3. There was some preparation leading up the big event, where teams could be found hanging around the various game shops, practicing their lists and developing them further. For many, this was a new experience as the usual pointage here is 35 and many hadn't even tried deathclock before. Fortunately, we had 20 brave souls turn up for the event, a number that was larger than the last few events in the year. 

The mood was high as we arrived and set up, taking out our armies and preparing our lists and any final touchups we would have needed. Incidentally, this was the first time I managed to field a fully painted army. 

With only 4 teams, we were going to have to fight each team at least once. Our most dread match-up was against Team 4, which had the champion of the past few SR tournaments as well as several Skorne players in it. Unfortunately, we had them as our first match-up.

Team Captains got together to decide who would go first. I lost the dice roll so I had to offer someone up first. It went like this, the first team would offer 1 person while the 2nd team would offer 2 people to fight him. The first team would choose who they would face then offer up another 2 for the guy who wasn't chosen to pick to fight. Then so on.


Mercenaries(3) -Menoth(chosen)
-Skorne(John)
Skorne(4) -Trollbloods(chosen)
-Khador
Khador(3) -Cryx
-Cygnar(chosen)
Cryx(4) -Legion(chosen)
-Cygnar
Cygnar(3) -Skorne(Derek)

So we managed to get some fairly favourable match-ups. The trollbloods runes of war was going to be a very tough fight for the Skorne; in fact it would be a repeat match-up of the previous day when they had fought against each other and Skorne had lost. So I'm really surprised he chose the trollblood player instead of me. I avoided the Cryx player since I wasn't sure of a victory against him and we needed 3 wins to win as a team. Which meant the Legion player got fed to him instead. 

Kommander Zoktavir, The Butcher Unleashed - WJ: +4
-War Argus
-War Dog
-Behemoth - PC: 13

Madelyn Corbeau, Ordic Courtesan - PC: 2
Koldun Lord - PC: 2
Iron Fang Kovnik - PC: 2
Saxon Orrik - PC: 2
Kayazy Assassins - Leader & 9 Grunts: 8
-Underboss 2
Iron Fang Pikemen - Leader & 9 Grunts: 8
-Black Dragon Officer & Standard - PC: 2
Winter Guard Mortar Crew - Leader & 1 Grunt: 3
Greylord Outriders - Leader & 4 Grunts: 9


Captain Allister Caine +5
- Squire 2
- Hunter 6
- Stormclad 10
Journeyman Warcaster 3
Stormblade Captain 2
Captain Arlan Strangewayes 2
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios 3
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator 1
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages 6
- Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer (UA) 2
Black 13th 4
Stormguard (max) 9
Stormblade Infantry 5 

We roll for deployment and he goes first. The scenario is #10, Rally point. Not many photos were taken in the excitement of the tournament. 

Turn 1
-Stormguard run up the center. Stormblade follow behind, followed by the Stormblade Captain. Arcane shield is cast on the stormguard. Arlan walks up and gives the Stormclad a focus. Stormclad runs. Hunter moves up the right flank. Caine walks up the left flank, followed by Squire and Reinholdt. He casts blur on the ATGM. ATGM run up the left flank into the forest. Eiryss walks up into the forest. B13 gather behind the ATGM.
+No focus to anything. Mortar crew shoots up into the stormblades, scatters in the wrong direction. Koldun lord gives Behemoth a focus in subcortex. It walks up the centre and shoots, and scatters in the wrong diretion again. B3 and his arguses run behind the objective and camp behind it, blocking LOS from eCaine. I'm camping all my focus to bait out an assassination if need be. Ironfang Kovnik gives the IFP +2" movement. They walk up and shieldwall. Greylords run up the right zone, towards all those delicious def12 stormblades. Kayazy run up the right flank, near the zone. 
Turn 2
-He upkeeps blur and gives a focus to the Hunter. He decides his ATGM are better served trying to take on Kayazy and tries to run them over to the right. Caine walks and teleports into the forest. Eiryss walks up and shoots the IFP and chooses sniper to deal damage to it directly. One dies. The stormguard walk up even further. The hunter takes a shot at the Greylords, boosts to hit but doesn't kill it. 
+Camping all my focus again. I shoot his objective with the mortar and deal a bit of damage to it. At armor 20, it's a really tough nut to crack without giving focus to Behemoth. But again, I don't dare to give focus while eCaine still has his feat. Koldun Lord gives Behemoth 1 more focus. He walks up into my zone and shoots Caine. It deviates but lands on him anyway. I boost the damage and deal 6 damage to Caine after factoring in the focus. IFK give the IFP +2" movement but the IFP end up charging to engage eEiryss. They also mini-feat and camp my zone. I make a mistake and forget to teleport my objective into my zone so it counts as me dominating it for 1 CP. Ugh. Greylords walk up and spray and then light cav move back into the zone. I score 1 CP for controlling. 

Turn 3
-He drops blur and gets an extra focus from Squire. He moves his hunter into his zone to contest. The ATGM walk up and shoot at the kayazy and kill some but not enough. His stormguard charge my IFP but only 3 can make it into charge range. They manage to kill quite a few. Caine walks up, feats and shoots the Behemoth. He forgets to get an extra shot from Reinholdt first but he does manage to take down most of my systems except movement and left arm. However, with no cortex or even subcortex, Behemoth is kinda useless right now. Except as a tank. Stormblades run behind the Stormguard. Hunter shoots and kills a Greylord. 
+IFP shieldwall and move up to kill the stormguard. I can not believe how bad my rolls are at this point. At 6 to hit and 6 to kill, I miss/bounce most of the hits. Even my CMA against eEiryss missed. Fortunately, she has crap MAT and low dmg with her melee weapons. Arguses charge into the stormguard and kill...one. B3 stands outside the zone but teleport the objective into the zone. I'm still camping my focus because Behemoth doesn't have a cortex anymore. The mortar shoots at the ATGM and scatters, killing some. Greylords walk up and spray the stormblades and ATGM, killing most of the stormblades, including the SBC and one ATGM. I light cav move to engage the ATGM and prevent them from shooting my kayazy. Unfortunately, they have gunfighter so that means they get to shoot me instead.Kayazy get pathfinder from Saxon Orrik and charge the hunter. I miss on ONE Kayazy and the hunter is left with 1 hp. >_< No points for me this turn. 

Turn 4
-Caine keeps his focus and shoots some IFP. This time he remembers to move Reinholdt into b2b to get the extra shot. Eiryss tries to melee some IFP with predictably hilarious results. Stormguard beat the IFP but with no charge attack, some of them bounce off the armor. The stormblades charge my Kayazy and CMA one to death. The ATGM try to hit my Greylords with gunfight but the dice aren't cooperating with him either. The b13 walk up and try to use gunfight to hit them but it's not cooperating with them either for some reason. When they hit, they don't do enough damage to kill the Greylords. He forgets to move his hunter this turn. That or he realised his hunter wasn't going to be doing anything with only 1 hp left and left him there to contest the zone. 
+Vengeance lets me move Butcher up towards his zone. I don't kill anything though because I don't need to. Kayazy kill the hunter. I finally manage to kill the objective as well. My IFP clear out his stormguards while the greylords spray the stormblades and some ATGM to death before light cav to jam the ATGM even more. There is now nothing in my zone or his. Butcher activates, runs over to his zone and dominates it. My objective dominates my zone. That's 3 CP from domination and 1 from destroying his objective. With the previous 1 from earlier, I get the 5 CP needed to win. 

Thoughts on game
I totally forgot the objective could teleport and dominate. This would have saved me a lot of trouble or at least, 1 turn in hindsight. My opponent was pushed into a pretty tight corner at that point because most of his army was dead/dying while i was pushing into his main army with my right flank who was still alive. Sure, the IFP were mostly dead but that's to be expected. 

As for how the others did, all our members except the Legion player won their matches, leaving us as a comfortable 4-1 win for the first event. Against our expected toughest match-up too. It really felt like the tournament was off to a good start. 

After a short break for lunch, we came back for our 2nd match up. This time against Team 2. Again, I lost the dice roll but this time they chose to nominate someone first. 
Cygnar(2)-Khador(chosen)
-Mercenaries(John)
Mercenaries(3)-Cryx(chosen)
-Retribution
Retribution(2)-Trollbloods(chosen)
-Legion
Legion(3)-Cryx(chosen)
-Cygnar
Cygnar(2)-Cygnar

Yet another Cygnar player. This time playing pCaine however, but with a Stormwall. Could the Butcher take on a stormwall? We end up playing Scenario #9; Into the Breach and he goes first. 

Kommander Zoktavir, The Butcher Unleashed - WJ: +4
-War Argus
-War Dog
-Behemoth - PC: 13

Madelyn Corbeau, Ordic Courtesan - PC: 2
Koldun Lord - PC: 2
Iron Fang Kovnik - PC: 2
Saxon Orrik - PC: 2
Kayazy Assassins - Leader & 9 Grunts: 8
-Underboss 2
Iron Fang Pikemen - Leader & 9 Grunts: 8
-Black Dragon Officer & Standard - PC: 2
Winter Guard Mortar Crew - Leader & 1 Grunt: 3
Greylord Outriders - Leader & 4 Grunts: 9


Lieutenant Allister Caine (*6pts)
-Stormwall (19pts)
-Squire (2pts)

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
*Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer (2pts)
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team (4pts)
Rangers (5pts) Stormblade Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts) *
Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard (3pts)
*2 Stormblade Infantry Storm Gunner (2pts)
Captain Arlan Strangewayes (2pts)
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts)
Journeyman Warcaster (3pts)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (1pts)

Turn 1
-Rangers run up. pCaine casts snipe on the Stormwall, turning his guns into a sickening 18" gun and then hides behind a wall. The ATGM walk up the center. The b13 walk up the left flank and shoot magestorm at my IFP but it misses cause it's out of range anyway. Stormblades run up the right flank, towards the zone. Arlan gives the stormwall a focus. It runs up to behind the wall, near pCaine. His journeyman casts Arcane shield on the stormblades.
+No focus to anything. Mortar crew shoots at the rangers, kills one. Koldun Lord gives Behemoth a focus and it tramples up and shoots at the Rangers. Kills another one with deviation. Greylords run on top of a hill so they're def 17 vs shooting. Kayazy run up the right flank. I'm going to try and push them into the zone next turn. IFK give the IFP +2" movement and they shieldwall up to behind a wall as well, making sure to space out a bit just in case of stray magestorms. B3 runs to hide behind the Greylords on the hill while his arguses help screen him as well. 

Turn 2
-He gives 3 focus to the Stormwall and gets one from the squire. Rangers run up to give +2 to ranged attack rolls.  Caine casts deadeye on the stormblades and walks behind the stormwall. Stormblades assault the greylords and kill two of them since only 2 gunners were in range. They are now in the zone. His attack rolls are awesome at this point. Stormwall shoots the argus and the Greylords but misses the greylord and kills and argus. This means vengeance time. He drops covering fire with the rest of his weapons. B13 shoot at the IFp but the magestorm deviates backwards and kills the leader instead. Oops. The ATGM shoot at the IFP but with snipe, they're not likely to punch through my armor. 
-Let's see. I get vengeance. I use it to move out from the Greylords. I have a plan, which doesn't require me to have that much focus. I give 3 to Behemoth's subcortex. The IFK gives the IFP +2" movement and they walk up and mini-feat, engaging a ranger while they do so. I energiser with 3 focus remaining, walk into the zone and make sure I'm within 5" of both the stormblades + the rangers and I feat and impending them next to me. Both units auto fail their CMD check, meaning I now dominate the zone. Just for good measure, my Argus walks up and surrounds them. My wardog runs up. The Greylords walk up and spray the stormblades anyway and then lightcav move to jam the stormblades from fleeing away. Kayazy run up as well and jam them. Mortar crew shoot at the ATGM, killing 2 of them. Behemoth walks up and shoots at them as well, killing enough that they have to take a CMD test, which they then FAIL. I also manage to kill Ryan. That's all 3 units fleeing, except the b13. I dominate for 2.

Turn 3
-He literally can't think of what to do. His units are stuck in my melee range which means they can't rally. They're also blocking his stormwall from going in. 3 focus to stormwall. The B13 shoot at the IFP for brutal damage but fail. Gorman walks up, still out of the zone and throws a black oil at the Kayazy which hits 2 of them. The stormwall tries to pick off as many of my troops as possible while still laying down some covering fire. I gain 2 more CP. His ATGM finally rally. 
+I could end the turn and I would win the game but just in case I need any KP for a tie breaker, I decide to kill everything I can first. The greylords spray the rest of the stormblades to death. The Kayazy charge the ATGM and finish all but one off. Saxon Orrik gives the IFP pathfinder and they charge the rangers and the sole surviving b13 and kill them off, all but 1 ranger. B3 flashing blades one time and kills everything else and moves backwards. I gain the last CP needed to win. 

Thoughts on game
This was a pretty brutal game for my opponent. He probably could have tried to throw the stormwall in but at that point, it was pretty much an uphill battle already when 3/4 units are fleeing the table. I also realised during this game, Butcher3 is pretty much immune to freestrikes from non-fearless units when he's on featmode. Theoretically he could feat, and charge past a few non-fearless units who would have to take CMD test when they're in his melee range, which they would then automatically fail which means no freestrikes for them. 

This game was a pretty close team victory. Mercenaries lost to Cryx, with the galleon being 1/2 an inch out of charge range of Denny. Trollbloods won Retribution while pHaley lost her stormwall pretty earlier on to Siege and his Stormwall. It all came down to Legion vs Cryx, which was a nailbiting game, which ended with 3 seconds left on the deathclock!! Terminus charged Kallus and failed to kill him, which resulted in a Ravagore throwing Terminus and KDing him and then another Ravagore, whaling on him. But with that victory, we were up at 3-2 win/losses. Which means another team victory for us.

Now it was all up to the last round vs Team 1. I lost the roll again but this time we nominated someone first. 


Trollbloods(3)-Legion(chosen)
-Circle
Circle(1)-Cygnar
-Khador(Chosen)
Cygnar(3)-Skorne
-Trollbloods(chosen)
Skorne(1)-Legion(chosen)
-Mercenaries
Mercs(3)-Khador

So our last matches for the day and this would depend whether we placed first or not. 


Kommander Zoktavir, The Butcher Unleashed - WJ: +4
-War Argus
-War Dog
-Behemoth - PC: 13

Madelyn Corbeau, Ordic Courtesan - PC: 2
Koldun Lord - PC: 2
Iron Fang Kovnik - PC: 2
Saxon Orrik - PC: 2
Kayazy Assassins - Leader & 9 Grunts: 8
-Underboss 2
Iron Fang Pikemen - Leader & 9 Grunts: 8
-Black Dragon Officer & Standard - PC: 2
Winter Guard Mortar Crew - Leader & 1 Grunt: 3
Greylord Outriders - Leader & 4 Grunts: 9


Morvahana the DawnShadow +5
-Gorax 4
-Warpwolf Stalker 10
-Warpwolf Stalker 10

Blackclad Wayfarer 2
Druids of Orboros +UA 9
Gallows Grove 2
Lord of the Feast 4
Shifting Stones +UA 3
Warpborn Skinwalkers +UA 11 

So eMorv. Never had to face her before. We end up playing Scenario #12, Fire Support. And he ends up going first. 

Turn 1
-His druids run up and pop smoke on themselves. The stalkers runs to his objective and prowl. eMorv walks up and casts fog of war as well as Carnivore on the skinwalkers. The stones pop 8" forward, one going up the left and one going up the right. 
+IFK gives the IFP +2" movement and the IFP walk up and shieldwall. Mortar shoots the druids and kills one. Butcher and wardogs walk up besides the IFP. Saxon Orrik walks up the right, to the very edge. Kayazy run up the left flank. Greylords run up the left flank. 

Turn 2
-LOTF teleports in and kills some IFP. His druids come up and pull Butcher out, using Morv's rerolls to reroll all the misses. His Druid UA comes up and pulls him out as well. (More on this later) Then the blackclad wayfarer casts hunters mark on B3 and the first warpwolf stalkers charges but hits the objective and fails charge but then the Circle player says the stalker must move the max distance possible and shunts it off the side, near his druids (*2) and then his other stalker which had been blocked by the first one charges B3 and kills him with aid of many rerolls. Morv was down to 2 life thanks to the rerolls. 

Which is how the game probably should have ended. Except we discovered a few things after the game. First, he discovered his UA doesn't have the magical pull that druids do. Which means I probably wouldn't have been in range for hunters mark since it was barely in from what I recall. Which also means no +2" movement for the stalkers. *2, while charging the opponent must move as far as possible but has to STILL move in a manner which will let it end up in melee with the target. Which was impossible for his stalker so he couldn't have run it off the side just to not block his charge lane. Which means his 2nd stalker couldn't have charged either. Anyway, he wasn't satisfied because he misplayed it so he asked the TO how we should settle this. But the response was that it was up to us, he would just turn a blind eye to it. So we ended up replaying it, which ended up with B3 getting 5 CP again. But since my team was already up 3 wins, it meant we would win this team either way even if it counted as my loss. So we just settled it with him as the victor. Ironically, despite playing another game, we weren't the last pair to finish. 

At the end of the day, as the only team with 3 victories under the belt, we ended up getting first place, followed by Team 4 and then team 2. 
From left to right, we have Trollbloods, Cygnar, Mercs, Khador and Legion. 

Things I've learned from this tournament. Check UA cards. Also, make sure to think things through a bit more. Deathclock was fun, although quite a few people were not too used to it and almost had their time run out of them. In fact, I think the Legion guy from Team 1 lost consistently cause his time ran out. 

An interesting thing to look at is the list composition for most of the factions. Almost all of the Cygnar players tend to favor the Haleys and Caines. Khador was totally different but then again, there were only 2 Khador players. Skorne had a lot of Makedas. In terms of factions, Cygnar was probably the most popular with 4 people followed by Cryx and Skorne with 3 people each. Then Khador, Legion and Trollbloods with 2 each. The only factions that didn't appear was Cyriss and Minions surprisingly, because the Minions guy had to cancel cause of family emergency and a Ret guy subbed for him. 

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