Thursday, February 24, 2011

Steamroller 2/20/11 @ Maplewood Hobby

With only about a month of playing the game me and a couple of friends decided to sign up for an upcoming Steamroller tournament at our semi-local gaming store.

my list:
Magnus the Traitor
Nomad
Renegade
Steelhead Riflemen (min unit)
Steelhead Riflemen (min unit)
Steelhead Halberdiers (max unit)
Steelhead Cavalry (min unit)
Kell Bailioch
Gorman De Wulfe
Stannis Brocker

I knew that Magnus was probably not the best caster for my list, but I wanted to go with a painted army and I couldn't get everything I wanted in time for a Mc Bain list. Also I was more familiar with Magnus all my games thus far were with Magnus. So I picked a list that I was pretty familiar with even if it was not optimized.

First round I faced Brain who had:

Epic Captain Allister Caine
Gun Mages (max unit?)
Black 13
Rangers (min unit)
Cyclone
Hunter
Reinholdt
Gun Mage Captain Adept
Squire

the mission was three control points in the middle of the board, after first turn one of them would disappear.

I knew right off the bat that I would have to spring forward and attempt to control a point before Brain can move his ever so shooty force to deal with my infantry. Didn't kill much on his side but the high point was landing an obliterator shot right on Reinholdt's head.

Though my infantry was chewed up by blatantly being thrown in the face of a firing line that isn't what lost me the game... What lost me the game was not reading the mission, for some reason I believed that jacks could not cold an objective. Had I known I would of moved my renegade up to the objective and won the mission. But alas and YET again I fail to read the mission properly and because of it completely fail. On the upside Magnus survived the battle!

Second Round I faced off against Steve who had:

Epic Wraith Witch Deneghra
Death Ripper x2?
Defiler? tell you the truth I really couldn't tell the difference.
Reaper
Withershadow Combine
Necrotech with Scrap Thralls (max)
Wrong Eye & Snap Jaw
Bullsnapper

the mission was odd, it was to have only your models in a small area of control on your opponents side. what made it odd was that the opposing faction's box was only a short walk away from your own.

He started the game very aggressively by running his three light jacks right in front of my army, I retaliated by sending as much firepower as possible into them. Crippling most of their abilities and giving me the slight advantage in knowing that he wouldn't be slinging spells from afar. If Deneghra wanted to do anything she would have to come in close.

Soon enough he popped Deneghra's feat freezing all my guys into place as he paraded his gators through my lines. The Reaper wiped out the Nomad pretty easily after using all its focus allotment leaving it a wreck. During the round Stannis proved to be the true leader of my force making himself some nice gator shoes out of the Bull Snapper.

My retalitory strike didn't do much wiped out 2/3rds of the Withershadow combine backed away from the deadly reaper. Moved Magnus to behind the lines overseeing any progress with the Renegade (who had snipe by the way) in tow. During his turn he attempted a run at my Magnus, he used Deneghra to charge and teleport Stannis my dice were rolling hot and I managed to hit her with defensive strike for a few boxes.

Next he charged with Snapjaw at Magnus dealing a healthy seven to eight damage, admittedly he charged in with only one fury on him and used up all his fury getting that much damage. Horrible rolls really screwed up his attempt especially missing with most of his charge attacks then barely rolling Magnus' armor.

When my turn rolled around I knew I had to make my attempt on Deneghra or as a last ditch effort pop my feat and run Magnus away from Snapjaw while sending my renegade to tie it up in combat. I charged a halberdier not in combat against Deneghra hoping for a lucky hit, didn't work, I was hoping that I would be able to send the lone surviving calvary against Deneghra running past Snapjaw (that didn't work he died). Stannis walked back towards Deneghra and was lucky enough to roll high for a hit easily putting a few more boxes of damage on Deneghra. To end my run my Renegade stood stationary and launched his obliterator into combat, I knew the chances of hitting Deneghra were none but I knew with a 4" AOE it couldn't scatter that far off target.

I wasn't wrong it scattered slightly, landing on the halberdier in the combat who somehow survived the ordeal! Deneghra was caught in the blast I boosted the damage and checkmate Deneghra was done for.

Third round I was paired against James?:
Kommander Sorscha Kratikoff
Beast 09
Kayazy Assassins w/ Underboss UA
Great Bears of Gallowswood
Saxxon Orrik
War dog
Winter Guard infantry w/ Officer & Standard UA and Rocketeer WA
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich

mission was get to opposing armies flag with a unit to gain control points. I knew that I wouldn't be able to accomplish it lol.

Though I knew going in that I would be horribly beat by Kayazy Assassins and their crazy shenanigans my opponent was a very understanding and experienced player that was patient with me. The rocketeers kept launching shots at my infantry, when I braved the large hill in the center of the table the Kayazy Assassins dealt with most of the Halberdiers.

Small victory was when a lone Rifleman decided to take vengeance and killed Kovnik with one shot! Huzzah for aiming! of course in return he was bludgeoned to death by the Winter Guard but whatever. Also when two Assassins came barreling at Magnus who was camping his focus, failed to do any damage. In return Magnus took out an assassin and popped his feat to retreat into a forest away from the Assassins.

The Khador player proceeded to chase around Magnus with Beast 09 but scored twice on my counter and won the game. Over all it was a very enjoyable game even if I was getting beat my opponent was a very nice guy so I walked away with the moral victory of Magnus living to see another day.

Round 4 I was paired against Hoj:
Epic Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia
Mulg the Ancient
Earthborn Dire Troll
Dire Troll Mauler
Trollkin Champions (max unit)

the mission was two circle control areas on opposite ends in the middle of the table.

This game was pretty quick seeing as I knew fully well what Hoj's list was capable of, having played it the night before in a few practice games. Hoj knew that his list needed to stay relatively packed together in order to deliver a killing blow. So I left Magnus far behind the lines to counter attack anything Hoj would throw at me.

I ran up the sacrificial Halberdiers into one of the control areas while sending all my Riflemen towards the flank taking a few pot shots at the Mauler. Hoj responded by bounding the Earthborn towards the halberds killing four and engaging the rest, while the mauler took a few swipes at the Riflemen.

In response my Halberdiers combined their attacks damaging the Earhborn, who was then run down by the Cavalry charge! All I can say is OUCH until that point I haven't use my Calvary usually they run around making the enemy worried and are dealt with harshly. But when you have them flanking Halberdiers I never imagined taking out an Earthborn that quickly. The Riflemen continued to plink at the Mauler, though I can see Hoj was heavily discouraged at this point after all I just took out a third of his main hitting power.

Next round the Mauler and Mulg finished up most of the two Riflemen units and stayed in a control area. I attempted to make a small attempt at assassination on Hoarluk, knowing he would be hiding behind his champions. Since he camped one fury I decided to start with Gorman throwing an acid bomb on Hoarluk and his Champions that were packed tightly. I manged to hit a lot of them and rolled high enough to cause a fair bit of damage. Hoarluk transferred the damage to one of his beasts.

Seeing the opportunity I launched the Renegade's obliterator at the Champions boosting damage against Hoarluk. Rolling high even for the blast damage Hoarluck was standing on just a breath of life and all of his Champions were either knocked down (due to tough) or severely damaged. With a lot of them being effected by corrosion next turn, Hoj called the game noting that I would score the second point needed for the objective win seeing as the last few Riflemen jumped into his control zone to stop him from scoring.

End of the day:
I had a great four games and I am finally getting a good grasp of the game, I have to thank Ibodger program on my phone for referencing any rules quandary I had before asking a question to the judge. Whats next for the mercs? Well I have just finished painting Mc Bain and I am attempting to making two different armies one for Magnus and one for Mc Bain.

There were rumors of a new merc caster modeled after Don Quixote and will be a steel head caster, this had me quite excited as I tend to run a lot of steel head infantry and who doesn't love the story of Don Quixote?! I have am also in negotiations to start my second army, Retribution of Scryah. Namely because I like playing armies that are not seen often. Hopefully next update will be a few pics!

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