Yours Is No Disgrace (LTC Fail post)

Mabrothrax's LTC Fail.

Excuses

Well, first let’s get the shameful news out of the way… the team I played for came last of 12. Both my team mates lost all 4 of their games and I only won one. Overall I placed 28^th of 36, which isn’t amazing either. Actually, one of our team members got the day of the tournament wrong and missed the first round, it was all downhill from there.

There is no substitute for a good night’s sleep. Going into a long day of full on playing whilst exhausted and cranky is not the best way to do things. Be prepared!

I did thoroughly enjoy the day and had some great games and came away with some new ideas and more experience, so it wasn’t all that bad…

Round 1 pMadrak vs Cygnar (Siege Trial by Fired theme list tier 4)

Major Markus ‘Seige’ Brisbane

Triumph

Ironclad

Squire

Journeyman Warcaster

Hunter

Journeyman Warcaster

Charger

Captain Arlan Strangeways

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages

Arcane Tempest Officer

10 Long Gunners

4 Field Mechaniks

The scenario was Close Quarters.

I didn’t know this new theme force, and the three trenches setup in close proximity (touching) my opponent’s flag was a blatant move to entice me to his corner.

Being the first game, being tired and rushed to get to the venue and slightly disorientated had me making seriously stupid mistakes. I set up one unit of warders to go for his flag and challenge siege, but with a handy piece of rough terrain in the way… and on the second turn I didn’t actually move pMadrak into contact with my own flag and failed to score. Yeah, that bad.

To be frank, once I’d given away the missed CP it was over. I somehow let a journeyman warcaster survive to contest as well. I lost the game 5-2.

On the plus side the ARM 21 brick was virtually unkillable and it took my opponent forever to take down one unit of Warders, and even with Siege’s feat he still had a hard time inflicting any damage.

Round 2 pMadrak vs Cryx (pSkarre)

Pirate Queen Skarre

Deathjack

Skarlock

10 Bane Thralls

Bane Thrall Officer & Standard

10 Mechanathralls

10 Mechanathralls

Necrosurgeon + Stitch Thralls

Necrosurgeon + Stitch Thralls

10 Blood Witches

Blood Hag

Warwitch Siren

Warwitch Siren

Satyxis Raider Captain

3 Scrap Thralls

Saxon Orrik

Scenario: Into the Breach

Cryx are a pain, but they don’t scare me all that much. To be honest I expected to be able to attrition this one like a charm, all it would take is using a combination of Madrak’s feat and the careful use of the bump animus to grab a juicy 2CP in the zone. At least, that was the plan.

You know how in some games you feel totally disconnected from your opponent? He played his force, I played mine and the interaction was minimal. Skarre ran for the flag and grabbed an early CP, I sat in the zone and went about slowly trying to clear it. Things were going well until Skarre’s feat turn where I lost a decent chunk of my force and went from being outnumbered to overwhelmed. Ther was no way I was getting any CPs from the zone now. However, Skarre had moved from the flag to the centre of the table and was in clear range for Madrak to step up and have a go. Being 1-0 down and with very little chance to win on control I went for the assassination.

Madrak charged Skarre with 5 fury and failed to hit with all his attacks. He was then brutally murdered in return.

Balls.

Round 3 Calandra vs Skorne (pMorghul)

Master Tormentor Morghoul

Basilisk Krea

Cyclops Brute

Bronzeback Titan

Molik Karn

Tiberion

Titan Gladiator

6 Paingiver Beast Handlers

6 Paingiver Beast Handlers

Extoler Soulward

Scenario: Supply and Demand

 Now this was a fun game. I’ve played Lewis before where he used a 35 point version of the same list and was comfortable in knowing my opponent and his army. Admittedly the Calandra list might not have been the best choice here, but I didn’t want to be locked in for the fourth round.

Early on the Runeshapers took out my opponent’s objective scoring me an early 1 CP. The rest of the game saw the ‘piece trade’ happen smoothly with each of us throwing beasts at each other, but in the long run his heavies out lasted my lights, and the bronzeback (just) managed to one round the Mountain King., also, early on the Runeshapers and the Storm Troll put some serious hurt on Morghul himself dropping him to two health.

Despite Star Crossed being up my opponent slowly wore me down and I couldn’t quite capitalize on the 1 CP lead or Morghul being practically dead. Then he managed to destroy my objective making it 1-1. Soon after Dice Down was called and I lost on the third Tie breaker as he had more points in the zone.

Round 4 pMadrak vs Legion of Everblight (pVayl)

Vayl, Disciple of Everblight

Succubus

Seraph

Scythean

Naga Nightlurker

Typhon

Gatorman Witch Doctor

6 Blight Nyss Hex Hunters

10 Blighted Nyss Legionnaires

Captian Farilor & Standard

Spawning Vessel and 6 Acolytes

Scenario Chemical Reaction

I know full well what Vayl and her list is all about and knew basically it would be a grind, which it was. Despite all his beasts and spells and broken abilities I slowly weathered the losses of Mulg and Rok whilst Warders and Bouncers surrounded Vayl (and Typhon) and eventually splatted her.

Not much else to say here really. I won a game, at last.

Overall thoughts.

I played badly. There’s no getting around it, I needed more sleep and time to relax beforehand. I had one of those epic dice fails in the Cryx match, and mishandled a turn in the Skorne match that probably cost me the game.

The pMadrak list is amazingly hard to deal with, it just soaks up so much damage. Despite this, I found it hard to capitalise on my opponent’s frustration and the Speed 4 Warders desperately wanted a buff. pMadrak works perfectly well in the list and with his feat on a crucial turn can work wonders, however, I am seriously considering keeping the list as is but swapping pMadrak for eGrissel…

This is an early stage ‘test it in my head’ thing.

The pros of eGrissel:

·         One more point of Fury

·         Dash (SPD +1) for the Warders

·         Fell Blast adds some ranged threat, but not much

·         Feat takes the ARM 21 spam idea and turns it up to 11 (well, 23) for one turn

The Cons:

·         Slightly less tough than pMadrak considering lack of Sure foot etc

·         Without Crusher or Carnage there’s no melee support going on

·         Feat is a bit ‘meh’

·         Erm… I don’t have her model yet?

Regarding the Calandra Theme list, I wish I’d had the balls to put it on the table at least one more time. Funnily enough I found the Warders in the list (in this game and others before) to be somewhat out of place. They are amazingly good, but here… well I found myself wishing I had more Runeshapers and another Storm Troll for some electro leap stuff. That’s a straight swap that I’m going to try out. It has some obvious benefits: another point of fury in the Kriel Stone to start with, more ranged threat, more coverage for Janissa’s Force Lock ability, more electro leaps…

I know I’m losing hard as nails weapon masters, but sometimes you have to go with your gut.

So there you have it. I’ll be trying the alternate Calandra list at my local club soon, and perhaps the eGrissel/pMadrak swap soon. Time to really get these lists to work in preparation for Smogcon in Feb 2014!

Keep rolling tough!