Weirdly enough I've still got Gorten/Thexus, because changing pairings mid tourney is, just slightly, not in the rules.
It's Harbinger and Severius, we're playing Entrenched.
Tourney has no list locking, he's played Harby twice and won both with 5 CP. Doesn't take a genius to work out the drop here. I wanted to drop Gorten and do the Ninja Pig assassination, but ultimately with this matchup, on this scenario, on the terrain we had, Cephalyx was the right choice.
Specifically, Thexus has a lot of miscellaneous tools to threaten the zone (More power attacks, TK threat, Subduer drag) whereas Gorten is a more limited set. DimiLovato is also skilled enough that it was a safe assumption he wouldn't give me a non-convoluted and tricky assassination run.
Gorten can also only feat push on one zone, but most damning of all if I didn't pick table side then there was a forest that would split the Dorf list horribly and was fundamentally uncrossable by the jacks when they would need to have effective turns.
I was sufficiently tired that afterward I struggled to remember these reasonings, but I'm fairly sure that was my mindset going in.
Harbinger1 - Salvation of Heresy (I think?), Reckoner, Vengers, Rhoven and co, 2x Wracks, Knights Templar, Nicia, Gravus, Errant Seneschal, Piper
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Merc 1: I win the roll, pick first, intending to get up the board before the line of Martydom tossers get up to me. Standard feeding and running.
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Menoth 1: Everything runs forward, Vengers get a buff I don't recall. Jacks get no spell attack whatsit, that'll be a common theme this game.
Vengers are out front, threatening my objective and zone. Menoth basically moves to teh right side of the board, keeping space from the left Monstrosities.
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Merc 2: Focus feeding, Pscycho Surgery and model shuffles. All the Wardens go into zones, two into the opposing one, the last in my own. Thexus cowers behind the forest.
I left one of the Wreckers in Venger range but not in the zone. Awful placement.
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Menoth 2: The Seneschal goes in, kills my Objective straight up.
Vengers, Gravus, Rhoven and one bro all go in, they polish off the contesting Warden.
Knights Exemplar head off to the left, ready to contest the Menoth zone in Martydom range.
Harby and Jacks hang back with the wall.
Menoth goes to 2 CP.
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Merc 3: Easy enough, feat, kill all the Vengers, the Reckoner, force some Martydoms and score. Keep Thexus safe.
Exulon heals, does some friendly TK's, feat pushes the world, TK's himself backward.
In the Menoth zone, pretty much plan as intended. Warden kills the Objective with his initials, Wrecker goes up and Threshers on three of the Knights Exemplar, causes a couple Martydoms.
Now onto the wheels falling off as I decide that tree before me resembles a road.
The Subduer moves up, per pre-measurement gets into range of the Reckoner. Throws out his drag shot.
Rhoven's Goober shield guards it. Forgot about that. I drag in the loser and cause another Martydom, Nicia is also knocked down.
The Warden in the left goes to toe the zone and be in range of the Subduer.
On the right, I've set up a beautiful Thresher arc. First Wrecker takes the Prime spot.
I forgot to Instigate, promptly miss most of the seven's I need to hit.
Then Instigate and send a second Wrecker in, pops a couple models but its looking bad. Gravus is dismounted and the Seneschal pops, so it's something.
That's a pair of damning mistakes, I like to think it's due to Menoth unfamiliarity but I've fought Rhoven before and Instigate is just Cephalyx basics. Just bad play from me there.
Anywho, scores equal at 2 CP apiece.
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Menoth 3: Harby moves up from the wall, feats.
Reckoner kills the Subduer, Knights and the Character Jack with Arcane Vortex kill the Wrecker in the Menoth zone. Remaining models in my zone kill the Wrecker that failed to make my dreams come true (Wait, no one really dreams about wardollies right?).
Scores remain level.
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Round 4/Merc 5: Clock is tight, so next rounds blur out a bit.
Thexus stays back, Martydom stops me finagling a Grand Slam assassination, that jack having Arcane Vortex killing any TK dreams.
I try to kill that Character Jack, leave it on one box. I manage to clear out a bunch of the Knights and the remaining Vengers, crawl to 3 CP.
Harby charges into my zone to kill the Wrecker there, only Gravus dismounted being left.
I have a memory flubb on a token, basically I can win on the final turn by either killing Harby with Thexus (Low odds) or, as I mistakenly thought, by going in and clearing the top zone.
The character jack easily dies, THexus TK's himself, charges the Reckoner, tries to TK it and is denied.
It's not quite lost, I have an Eliminator. She goes into the Reckoner, she can then sidestep and stab a heavily injured Warden, giving him a focus to attempt a throw.
She Snake Eyes the Reckoner.
Alas.
It was also all in vain as I'd forgotten I needed to TK an Agitator away from Nicia to allow it to run and contest my zone. Harby wins on scenario.
That was a good game, though my mistakes are hideously glaring to me. I'd prefer a cleaner table, but we we're both wrecked so that happens.
Next time Diminger! For sure!
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Me on the left.
Through some unfortunate real life events I ended up with the Bye round 4, but oh well. Got to hang with cool peeps, came 9th out of 27 and practice some watchmachine, so that was nice.
