Second day of sweet con-ness.
Three man team event, it's a cut down version of the WTC format so one side pics tables and one matchup, other side picks two matchups. Tables were hugely impactful this year alas, so that portion didn't really do much (Hence my preference for the Oceanic style of different scenarios, makes life simpler and clearer).
Pretty sure everyone just cut down their 75 point lists to 50's, which doesn't make them ideal but eh, they don't feel like proper size games anyway (At the time of writing Hungerford put out how people felt about making Masters/Champions/SR base 50. Not a fan, though I'd survive if it happened to only one of them).
Our team is shonky Mercs, grey Crucible Guard and Iona/Wurmy Devouring hostiness.
First opposing team is the Colossal Dickheads, as each list had double Colossals or Gargs in it.
Imph. not liking this, the MacBain list already doesn't hit hard enough (Dropped Hawk, Boomhowlers and Mutineers to get down to 50, so no Reville either).
Think they had Menoth, Trolls and.....uh.....definitely a third thingy. Something mundane (Wasn't Crucible, Grymkin, Mercs or Minions).
Regardless, we lose the roll and end up with tables. We put out our Circle as he had one bad matchup, we choose the better match for him then they throw Menoth my way.
Double Judicator with either Kreoss 1 or Kreoss3. Doesn't matter, sod dropping Durgen.
Spread the Net, It's jam and try for scenario time.
My stuff runs forward and I brace. Bottom of 1 Galleon gets shot down by the Judicators. Sigh. Kreoss also feats to knock down most stuff.
I Feat on Alexia/Eiryss/Press Gangers. Sadly this is a list with a Shield Guard solo near Kreoss so no cheap kills.
Kell camps my flag, the Press Gangers jam in. I score early points, alas the Judicators push forward, wind up killing Kell and Eilish (Who was the reserve flag scorer), one manages to get up to my zone. I kill Sevvy 0 while Press Gangers and Risen bounce off the contesting Judy. MacBain ends up trying to go in, rolls abysmally on the opening attacks and camps three, looking awkward.
Judy swing on him, first attack leaves him on handfull of boxes. Second misses, MacBain dodges away.
Got one chance at a long odds victory, as I'm not able to delay quite enough for the clock win.
The Shield Guard was killed earlier, so Eiryss pops out from where she was hiding to knock Kreoss' Fury off, it's down to MacBain energising and popping in ranged attacks. Sadly I'm an inch out from getting some Rift action going. First shot misses and that's all she wrote, MacBain is then easily killed.
Fortunately my team mates carry me and our tim wins! Also, because Nerds suck at organising themselves there's only four teams and it's a round robin affair.
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ROUND 2: SOME ABOUT KIWI NYA
Into a team of Kiwi's plus one traitorous aussie. The Kiwi's usually win this thing, so surely this year is perfect for my ineptitude to crop up.
Pretty sure it's Invasion, they have Legion, Circle and...yeah, my memory stops at 2 it would seem. I know I wanted to avoid the Legion, it's an experienced Fyanna player and my current pair feels even more trash into it (Fortune is worst hit buff).
Win the roll, get matchups. I avoid the old Dragon-inions and go into the Aussie Circle.
Circle pairing is Morvhanna1 and Krueger2. My drop obviously wasn't going to change, Morv drops so Mortality is in play. Awkward for feat. Thankfully other than that the only thing present with Grievous is the Gallows.
Morv is in Devouring Host with Brennos, Gorax, an Argus, the cleaving Tharn mans, Blood trackers, various olos, Bridget doing Calls.
Win roll, take first. There's a forest in my centre of mild irritation, Circle get some defensive hills and such. From memory terrain has minimal impact.
My stuff runs up, Press Gangers spreading around like a roo on teh road by the third truck.
MacBain throws out all his buffs, Fortune on Eiryss, Counter Measures on Press Gangers, Failsafe on Galleon, he then walks forward.
I done goofed, a sign of things to come. Opposing list has a Pot that gives corpses to Lord of the feast, who moves up and birds to get to MacBain and Eiryss. Ah. Really should have looked that stuff up. Mmmm.
Eiryss evaporates as though she never was, thankfully MacBain takes sod all damage.
Blood Trackers move forward and shoot down some Press Gangers.
Brennos shuffles up pops out a weird AoE of "can't shoot while in it".
I opt to hold feat until there's merit to it, have to pops the Gallows Grove first. Plans are to kill the Pot and the Gallows grove, gum up the trackers on the right and ignore the Vengeance Tharn with Replenish on them.
MacBain hacks down Lord of the Feast, throws Countermeasures on the right side Press Gangers where it should have gone the turn previous. He chills behind the forest and Galleon.
Galleon trundles up to the left of centre, drags in Brennos and kills him, shoots down the Gallows Grove.
Press Gangers spread out in both side zone, right unit also gets to Shanghai some trackers which felt pretty great.
Lastly Alexia pulls a Thrall out of her magic rabbit hat, it chares the vault. Weaponmaster dice off 8, thinking being I only need to put it down to 3 boxes and Kell can finish it. Or not, the damage roll flatlines. Nuts.
Bottom of 2, the left Tharn come in and kill a few Press Gangers, keen to move up and threaten the Galleon. Morv moves up behind the objective and pops feat. The Blood Trackers on the right struggle somewhat, confounded by Countermeasures slowing up their murder pace.
Top of 3, I'm very well placed for a clock win (42 minutes always feels to tight for 50pt games to me), so it's time to feat to extend the game time. I also have a shonky assassination run on Morvhanna, so why not (Not likely to kill, just aiming for pressure and battlegroup damage).
MacBain feats and falls back, wanting nothing to do with more chances of imminent death.
Galleon shoots the objective, leaving it on 5 boxes and boosting blast on Morv, she never gets into a danger position however the Argus and Gorax take transfer damage a couple times. The Gorax then dies to a few of the rightside Press Gangers charging.
The remaining Eliminator and Kell, both feated, run in front of the Tharn to stop them charging the Galleon (Small units/solos become inefficient and difficult to Mortality). I finally remember Eilish can dispel and shuffle him up to knock off Restoration next turn.
Bottom of 3, the Trackers make some attacks, Morv shuffles somewhere and heals a bit. Bit pieces attack, Circle clock out before the Tharn get to do much.
Another team mate pulled through, so we go on to round 3 with no defeats and only about 17 regrets!
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ROUND 3: THE BIRTHDAY BOYS (ACTUAL 100% KIWIS)
It's Mirage. Let their be points! Sort of.
Can't remember the other team make ups beyond their was a Cryx player whom I tragically through myself onto. For the team. he also had two quick assassinations for his previous two rounds, so.....quick games are good yeah?
Spoilers, this is the worst competitive warmachine game I have ever played. Even over that Tas semi-final vs Kallus. Opponent was lovely, nothing dodgy, made a starting early call and it appropaitely burnt me hard.
They've got Denny 2 Jacks and Denny1 Satyxis. I was busy plotting how I play out the infantry matchup, Galleon is a bit useless, have to preserve Alexia above all else. Lots of living bodies at least.
Then Denny 2 drops. Oh. Well. Guess that's happening. I remember the feat (Turning x models incorp) pretty well, so things should be fine. Should I get the spell list? Nah, sod that, I'd remember if it had something meaningfull.Key points in the matchup are keeping MacBain safe from assassination, disrupting Death Jack or an offensively positioned jack each turn and having Alexia positioned to kill anything that tries to come forward whilst incoporeal.
I run my stuff up, I misdeployed the Risen so I lazily leave them as a blob that can't move past the Galleon while Alexia runs up to catch any early deaths that happe to Press Gangers. MacBain stays behind the Galleon, Eiryss shuffles up near the Press Gangers.
Denny has Hellmouth. Arc Nodes run forward, her and Deathjack ping a Press Ganger each to pop both of them.
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Quick games a good game I guess.
There's a central forest Denny is hiding behind, only choice I have is to barrel forward and try to kill her. MacBain and the Galleon both move forward, Failsafe up and with the caster surrounded by feated on models.
The Cryx Jacks go into the Galleon, they struggle initially, alas they manage to kill it.
The game actually takes multiple rounds to finish after this, I forgot the Risen mob for a couple rounds so once the Cryx jacks were finished with the Press Gangers the nombies took their place.
MacBain ends up breaking past the forest and getting Handcanon shots on Denny, alas I didn't roll all 6's all the time and she lived then he was trivially killed.
We went down this round alas, inspite of my dubious ability on the day I also technically partook of the 2nd place result.
It was something? The team is composed of those that have to run the con next year, so this is its swan song. At the end of the day I would have preffered to skip this tourney, having team mates makes that hard alas. 50 points can kick the bucket, not having Revielle made my already questionable list not a great choice. Not that any list woiuld help in that final round gameplay.
