Though I've attended a couple of casual tournaments this was my first tournament with enforced time restrictions, and BOY was I unprepared. After the first game I was stressed out and sweating like horse, but thankfully my opponent cut my agony short with Molik Karn. I don't know why, but I thought Molik had to kill something to sidestep, so I was more than a little surprised when he just stepped around my Harrower and slaughtered Mortenebra.
Game 1: Mortenebra Vs. eMakeda; Gaining Ground. I had the game, but since I missed that little thing about Molik Karn not needing to kill, but just a hit to sidestep, I lost. It was alright since I really needed to gather my thoughts and prepare for the next round, and consider how on earth I would ever field eGaspy and his 45 henchmen when I didn't even have time to activate Mortenebras army of Helljacks. I decided it might be alright since I had a huge amount of experience with eGaspy (seven whole games!), while I'd had only two with Mortenebra.
Game 2: eGaspy Vs. Ravyn; Process of elimination. I'd never played against Retribution before, but with Mage Hunter Strike Force on the other side I decided AGAINST Mortenebra, since there was no way she was living through that (I know I brought her to deal with ranged lists.... big mistake). The game was a brutal slaughter of my army while I pushed him back, and in the end he tried for an assassination with Ravyn. I was scared, but my opponent failed some basic math test and didn't boost the attacks against eGaspy, so when he rolled exactly average he missed. Asphyxious was still standing, so he had to throw some hail mary's, and one of them was a stormfall archer that missed eGaspy, hit Ravyn instead, and rolled boxcars, which killed her since a Bile had put some damage on her earlier.
So, win by team kill, but a win is a win (and I would have taken him in the following round anyway). I made some epic mistakes in this game due to time restraints, and I had a shot on Ravyn the round before which I missed because I purged my Bane Knights as well as the screen I was trying to remove in order to get the very same Knights in there. My opponent was a great guy and took his suicide with style, so I'm looking forward to meeting him again.
Game 3: eGaspy Vs. eCaine; The Gauntlet. Feeling more confident with eGaspy, though the list will need some serious reconstruction, I again decided against Mortenebra and the risk of facing eCaine. I pushed with all I could, and had him on the run when eCaine decided I had to go down. I had screened eGaspy with Darragh Wrathe, and due to some poor dice he was left unable to take down Asphyxious when Darragh finally fell of his horse (need more protection for eGaspy).
Caine gatecrashed to safety instead, so I had to do something about it or face another round of guns blazing. I threw everything at him, and built a cloud wall to keep eGaspy safe. A major part of his army was tied up or dead, but the real kicker was the two Blackbane's I had charging Caine... 11+ to hit, and one of them did, setting Caine on fire! The rest of the game was Caine burning to death while his army was dismantled, and at dice down I had Darragh Wrathe on foot win me the game due to tie breaker. I felt sorry for the guy being manhandled by his dice, but I needed that win.
Game 4: Mortenebra Vs. The Coven; Killbox. I was so incredibly tired, and I couldn't face another round of Asphyxious. I wasn't going home with a medal anyway, so I took Mortenebra. Now I posted a picture of a boy giving himself a wedgie a few days back, and that's exactly what happened. I was tired, I made some dumbass mistakes, and died without ever rolling a die to a spell assassination by the coven. I put my screen up, did some shuffling around, and left Mortenebra completely in the open (well, 3 mm gap, but might as well be in the open). I lost in 12 minutes, including the time it took to set up my army... After a couple of minutes of being incredibly annoyed with myself, I came to realize that it wasn't the end of the world, and I quite enjoyed the friendly teasing I received afterward. The guy who beat me also won 4/4 and took second place... and is a two time danish master, so if I had to get an atomic wedgie it might as well be by him.
I didn't make the top five, but as the tournament was expanded to 18 players my sixth place actually got me the top third position I was gunning for anyway. As of now I'm not qualified for the Danish Masters, but the system being used to determine the spots is incredibly complicated and hard to understand. I think it means that if somehow the winners of the coming tournaments are some of the same players that won this one, they will be removed from the calculations and leave me qualified. Either way, I'm just going to do better next time and earn myself a ticket.
Despite having bought a crapload of models Mortenebra, I think she'll remain on the shelf for the next tournament. I need casters I know when time is running short, and I need casters that can survive my stupid mistakes, so Terminus is signing up. I'm going to have to find a way of cutting his model count in half, but I think I have some ideas.
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