I arrived a full hour earlier than I needed to, since a couple of people got themselves lost. I was facing one of the slackers, and he turned out to be a very nice guy, but going for the title of most hungover player I've ever seen.
My opponent was a veteran of two entire games, so I settled down for a game of try not to end it to fast. I had an enjoyable game, with Scaverous against eMakeda, but the outcome was never in question. While I didn't come to the tournament to fight rookies, they're the future of the hobby, so I decided to enjoy myself, and I did. In the end I killed him with an unbinding from Admonia, which was a first for me, and it was on to round two.
This is when it hit the fan. Due to the character restriction I couldn't bring a good Terminus list and play around with Scaverous at the same time, so when I was faced up against Retribution I knew I was doomed. Mortenebra would be destroyed, so I settled for learning some more about Scaverous while I took my beating. It was a Ravyn list so I threw everything I had forward and hoped for the best.
It took him three MHSF shots to neuter my Arc Nodes, and both Sirens were lost to sacrifices I need to make. The entire WSC and Rorsh couldn't shoot the Destor Thane, so Brine had to step in as well, and I wasted fourteen points worth of army to destroy a single cavalry solo. Then I missed the range on a charge with Tartarus and I knew I was done for.
Amazingly his dice decided we should go another round, and my casualties were fairly limited. I actually had a shot at doing this, so I took it. TK a few models, TK Ravyn, Icy Grip Ravyn, Feast or Worms Ravyn, and forget to TK my Bane Thrall Officer into range (sigh). I did get one Bane Thrall on her, after I shot her with three Dark Fires, and the Feast of Worms plinked a few boxes of her as well, so if I rolled well on the single Bane Thrall I could still do it.
Guess what, I didn't. While I came closer than I would have thought possible, I lost as I should, and went on to round three. I can't say I enjoyed the game all that much, since I knew I was doomed, but at least my opponent was a nice guy, and I sort of owed him for our last game, in which he accidentally shot and killed his own caster.
While both my opponents were great people, I was having a bad day in general. My first game was a slightly advanced practice game, and my second game was lost before the first dice hit the table. I know I intentionally brought a weak build to produce better games, but being two thirds through the day without a good fight, left me slightly bitter. I also came to the conclusion that character restriction is an impressively bad idea, that works just as piss poorly in Warmachine as it does in Warhammer.
With that in mind, I faced my third opponent who turned out to be a rookie Menoth player. I know he's been an impressively successful Warhammer player, but he has less than ten games under his belt, so while he had some impressive skill for such a new player, it just wasn't enough. The Harbinger list was actually quite well suited to handling my Mortenebra list, so I put that on the table to make things a little interesting.
He managed to surprise me, and he actually scored a control point, but The Harbinger got within 19.5" of a Scavenger, and he didn't feat. If he had popped his feat I would have been in trouble, since no Scavenger survives Overrun + Charge against POW 14 hits (it actually dies on average dice), but being new he had so many things to keep track of, that he forgot about Overrun (I made sure he knew, and gave him a walkthrough of my army and tricks, but being new is hard).
My Scavenger beaked The Harbinger with Focus left to spare, and the day was over. I did some peeking at the other tables, and one of the complete rookies from my last tournament was winning his third game, so I latched on to that (and the opportunity to add one to my beaker-score), and called the day acceptable.
I did learn a few things today, and I've got Rorsh & Brine figured out (all I had to do was write REMEMBER TRANSFERS on the back of each base), but I don't like thirty five point games, and I loathe those character restrictions.
I've got in my ten games (in total) with Scaverous, but I just can't get him to work the way I would like. There's no doubt in my mind that he's a fantastic caster, but I find his style produces the same kind of annoying games that pDenny does, and he requires the perfect setup to run smoothly, which tends to lead to boring lists.
I still can't get around the sad fact that I need Terminus as a backup caster. Terminus covers just about every bad match-up we have, and he produces exactly the kind of games I prefer. My opponent gets to kill, main, and burn my army to cinders, and I end up winning. My opponent has fun smacking me around, and I win the game, which means he has as good a game as I can deliver without loosing, and that means a lot to me.
Tomorrow is another day, and maybe it will bring some close and interesting games, so I can either lose some close games, or get a few more notches on the beaker-score. Edit: After giving it some thought, I'm pretty sure I would have enjoyed the day completely, IF I could have brought Terminus to the table, so I could have played a serious game in between noob-stomps. I guess that's what I'll do next time.
It was a day of mixed emotions.
My opponent was a veteran of two entire games, so I settled down for a game of try not to end it to fast. I had an enjoyable game, with Scaverous against eMakeda, but the outcome was never in question. While I didn't come to the tournament to fight rookies, they're the future of the hobby, so I decided to enjoy myself, and I did. In the end I killed him with an unbinding from Admonia, which was a first for me, and it was on to round two.
This is when it hit the fan. Due to the character restriction I couldn't bring a good Terminus list and play around with Scaverous at the same time, so when I was faced up against Retribution I knew I was doomed. Mortenebra would be destroyed, so I settled for learning some more about Scaverous while I took my beating. It was a Ravyn list so I threw everything I had forward and hoped for the best.
Scaverous vs. Ravyn
It took him three MHSF shots to neuter my Arc Nodes, and both Sirens were lost to sacrifices I need to make. The entire WSC and Rorsh couldn't shoot the Destor Thane, so Brine had to step in as well, and I wasted fourteen points worth of army to destroy a single cavalry solo. Then I missed the range on a charge with Tartarus and I knew I was done for.
Amazingly his dice decided we should go another round, and my casualties were fairly limited. I actually had a shot at doing this, so I took it. TK a few models, TK Ravyn, Icy Grip Ravyn, Feast or Worms Ravyn, and forget to TK my Bane Thrall Officer into range (sigh). I did get one Bane Thrall on her, after I shot her with three Dark Fires, and the Feast of Worms plinked a few boxes of her as well, so if I rolled well on the single Bane Thrall I could still do it.
Guess what, I didn't. While I came closer than I would have thought possible, I lost as I should, and went on to round three. I can't say I enjoyed the game all that much, since I knew I was doomed, but at least my opponent was a nice guy, and I sort of owed him for our last game, in which he accidentally shot and killed his own caster.
Mortenebra Vs. The Harbinger
While both my opponents were great people, I was having a bad day in general. My first game was a slightly advanced practice game, and my second game was lost before the first dice hit the table. I know I intentionally brought a weak build to produce better games, but being two thirds through the day without a good fight, left me slightly bitter. I also came to the conclusion that character restriction is an impressively bad idea, that works just as piss poorly in Warmachine as it does in Warhammer.
With that in mind, I faced my third opponent who turned out to be a rookie Menoth player. I know he's been an impressively successful Warhammer player, but he has less than ten games under his belt, so while he had some impressive skill for such a new player, it just wasn't enough. The Harbinger list was actually quite well suited to handling my Mortenebra list, so I put that on the table to make things a little interesting.
He managed to surprise me, and he actually scored a control point, but The Harbinger got within 19.5" of a Scavenger, and he didn't feat. If he had popped his feat I would have been in trouble, since no Scavenger survives Overrun + Charge against POW 14 hits (it actually dies on average dice), but being new he had so many things to keep track of, that he forgot about Overrun (I made sure he knew, and gave him a walkthrough of my army and tricks, but being new is hard).
My Scavenger beaked The Harbinger with Focus left to spare, and the day was over. I did some peeking at the other tables, and one of the complete rookies from my last tournament was winning his third game, so I latched on to that (and the opportunity to add one to my beaker-score), and called the day acceptable.
Summary
I did learn a few things today, and I've got Rorsh & Brine figured out (all I had to do was write REMEMBER TRANSFERS on the back of each base), but I don't like thirty five point games, and I loathe those character restrictions.
I've got in my ten games (in total) with Scaverous, but I just can't get him to work the way I would like. There's no doubt in my mind that he's a fantastic caster, but I find his style produces the same kind of annoying games that pDenny does, and he requires the perfect setup to run smoothly, which tends to lead to boring lists.
I still can't get around the sad fact that I need Terminus as a backup caster. Terminus covers just about every bad match-up we have, and he produces exactly the kind of games I prefer. My opponent gets to kill, main, and burn my army to cinders, and I end up winning. My opponent has fun smacking me around, and I win the game, which means he has as good a game as I can deliver without loosing, and that means a lot to me.
Tomorrow is another day, and maybe it will bring some close and interesting games, so I can either lose some close games, or get a few more notches on the beaker-score. Edit: After giving it some thought, I'm pretty sure I would have enjoyed the day completely, IF I could have brought Terminus to the table, so I could have played a serious game in between noob-stomps. I guess that's what I'll do next time.
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