After missing out on the last tournament due to being incredibly hungover, I somehow managed to stay sober and made it to both days. It was well worth competing in, as I saw many new models I have never seen before and faced some different factions. The venue was great (fully air-conditioned hall was essential in tropical north-eastern Australia) as were the participants. The format was three tables, with 1v1v1 free-for-alls being played on each. The main table had a ruin which when held by a warlock/caster, gave them 6 extra fury/focus. The winner of the outer tables progressed to the main table to challenge the holding winner. While the format was fun, it led to relying on luck a bit as whoever rolled the lowest dice had to start in the middle, greatly lowering their chances of victory. Whoever the player in the middle chose to attack then also suffered, with the remaining player standing a solid chance of victory by coming in and sweeping up the remains.
The format changed on the second day, with an additional outer table added. The outer tables became 1v1 standard matches with the main table becoming a 4-way free-for-all and race for the center hill. I took some photos which I will upload with some battle reports....once I manage to get them of the camera (my usb cable has gone missing).
A brief summary of my matches went as follows:
Started on an outer table free-for-all against two Menoth players. Can't remember the other Menoth caster but in the middle was the Harbinger. The middle player got attacked from both sides and in a last stand effort charged the Harbinger into my Cutthroats and cast Cataclysm, killing all but 3. After taking the Harbinger out, I advanced to the center of the table and was being shredded, but managed to get a scenario win by having Denegrah in the middle of the table when time ran out (I had also feated preventing his caster from running in). Seemed like a dodgy way to win but I took what I could get ;)
Second game was on the main table against a Circle player on one side and Butcher-led Khador army holding the table and thus holding the center. He split his forces to attack both my Cryx and the circle, and was essentially destroyed by us both. I was sitting pretty well, with my full army intact, when the Butcher, who was the only one left feated. It was my first time seeing the Butcher and it wasn't pretty - the trail of Mechanithralls and Croes made for an easy path back to Denegrah. Full of rage tokens from his passage through he did some nasty things to her. Denegrah will be calling the Butcher in 9 months for some child support.
Third game was another 3-way battle, but this time with me in the middle. After seeing how poorly other people who started in the middle went, I dropped the "Play like you have a pair" motto and ran. A lot. A construct-based Baldur army were on one side and the Harbinger led Menoth from the first game. I did some decent damage to the constructs on my feat turn with Mechanithralls, than ran away again and killed the Harbinger, who had come too close to Wrong Eye and Snapjaw. Harbinger had popped her feat, but the high armor of the crocs let them endure the damage for the kill. Baldur came after me, and I almost had him (3 hp left). I made a mistake in the rules though and incorrectly thought I could stack Dennegrahs debuffs. I was wrong. This meant I wasted crippling grasp that was already on his Megalith by casting it on Baldur, then lost it again when I cast parasite the warcaster in an attempt to stack the debuffs. I failed to hit the 3 damage needed and the un-crippled Megalith charged Denegrah on the next turn, applying liberal stonefist-to-face.
The next day saw me up against a Retribution army with a lot of infantry and a single Jack - the Phoenix. I had seen the Phoenix in action before and promptly shut it down with a combination of crippling grasp and Snapjaw. I mowed down a large portion of his infantry on feat turn with numerous venoms, killing a large number outright and even more with corrosion. I played very cautiously, extending the number of turns the game took by about three - but I wasn't taking any chances after the Butchering I received on the first day. I eventually overcame his caster, but to his credit, he took out a large number of my infantry with AOE blast spells.
The previous win allowed me back onto the winners table, with the new format of a four-way free-for-all. The two Menoth players from my very first game had made it as well as another Cryx player who was fielding the Kraken - My very first battle against a Colossal. No-one risked drawing the attention of the other three players and the bonus focus in the middle of the field was left untouched. It was essentially two seperate games of Cryx vs Menoth, with me up against my old foe the Harbinger. I cripple his two heavies, and forced the Harbinger to take a large amount of damage to save his infantry that I destroyed with a combination of venom and Wrong-Eye's influence (it was fun seeing his solos beat each other up). He made it close to the center of the map, and popped his feat, essentially locking my armor 12-or-less army in place. Unfortunately for him, the other Menoth player had been defeated, and the Kraken was out for his next target. The Kraken hit the Harbinger with its cannon, but couldn't finish the job due to a large amount of Harbinger-camped focus. It was enough to help me, and one of Croes cutthroats managed to hit with his crossbow and roll 3 dice for poisoned damage. His warcaster, eSkarre, made it to the center of the field, bunching up in the ruins with the remainder of his Bane Thralls and Knights, with the Kraken lurking to the side. In a last-ditch effort, I popped my feat and sprayed venom over a large number of his infantry and Skarre. This took out enough banes to allow my remaining cutthroats to move into position to take shots at Skarre. It was close, but she survived with 4 hp left and corrosion ticking. Four Mechanithralls charged the Kraken and did some nice damage with their combo strike. His next turn he locked up my arc-node with Banes and failed to hit much of my army. Surprised to still be alive, I went all out again - clearing the Banes with Skarlock spell-slaving venom to allow the deathripper to arc. I cast venom again, but the combined camping of Skarre's own focus and her bonus focus for holding the center were too much to overcome. In my haste I forgot to move Denegrah. I also forgot that the Kraken could trample over the Mechanithralls and Denegrah was in range. I desperately tried to run Croes to place them in such a way that the Kraken could not find a place to fit his model to disrupt the trample, but there was too much room to move and his claws had a 4 inch reach on his attack. It was a close nerve-wracking game, and a great way to finish.
Somehow, even though I only won two games I was awarded second. The places were determined by who won at the final table, not the results leading up to it. It was a great event and I'm really happy with the way that my list went. Even though I was reliant on magic, and struggled against Menoth's magic immunity (damn those choirs!) the Mechanithralls did a lot of damage on the charge with their combo strike. The necrosurgeon performed remarkably - I lost count of the number of thralls she revived. My big plan of ghost-walking Croes into the back-arc of a living warcaster (for +2 attack and 4 dice for backstab + poison) didn't come to fruition. The other players were great with a relatively new player like me and showed me the rule in the book and explained other strategies for me.
Looking back at this post, I got a bit carried away explaining the battles. I'll still try to upload the photos though. It really was a great tournament and I look forward to playing against all the awesome people I met again.
