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Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut



Bellevue, WA

Eagles Games @ Bellingham Washington
September 24, 2006

I went 1-2-1. 

Saturday night I headed up to Bellingham with a friend.  We went to see some friends of ours, and crash at their house.  My buddy got the couch, I got the recliner.  I need to put some emphasis on this recliner - sleeping on it was about as suboptimal as you could get.  As I lay perfectly still it creaked and groaned ominously; I was convinced I was going to fall out of the thing.  "I'll give you ten dollars if you fall upwards," my buddy quipped.  The next morning my friend Luke (owner of said recliner) revealed that a few years previous the recliner had been giving him grief, he'd turned it over to see what was wrong and nine pieces came out.  Since then he says it's worked fine.  So yeah, I was sleeping in a recliner missing nine parts. 

So anyway, after a night of restless sleep we got some breakfast and headed to the tournament, meeting up with our friend Wolf and another local player who'd made the trip; guy named Andy.  The tournament was delayed for nearly an hour while we waited for some folks who were stuck in traffic to make it up.

Here's as good a place as any to give my lists:

List 1: 
Haley
- Lancer
- Ironclad
10x Stormguard
8x Sword Knights
GMCA
Journeyman
Piper

This list was my anti-Cryx assassin list.  I knew going into the tournament that Cryx would be the most common faction.  Fast bonechickens who want to arc spells at my caster?  TB + Vortex Spear ftw.  The Ironclad is there to be a melee beatstick when needed.  The Sword Knights play phalanx with the Lancer, and the Stormguard are just awesome.  Piper can do his thing for either the SKs or the SGs.

List 2:
Darius
- Ironclad
- Ironclad
- Centurian
Eiryss
GMCA
Junior

This is my answer to the FMB list.  It loses a Lancer (which I never get much use out of anyway) in favor of a few solos.  It also downgrades a Centurian to an Ironclad - I used to be down on the Ironclad but playing with it more and more makes me like it.  It doesn't take the beating a Centurian does but who cares - I'm Darius, that robot will fight until every box goes down and then it'll do it again.  I envisioned this list as being good for objective scenarios - with the Halfjacks I can fill up a hill; I can get across the table in Pendulum very quickly, and I can reliably hold 2/3 objectives in killing fields (a fortified centurian just isn't going anywhere). 

So, on to the games:

Game 1:  Assassination against Cryx (Coven)

This was my first ever game against the Coven, and my third ever game against Cryx.  My opponent was Chad, a pretty cool fellow.  His list was something along the lines of Coven, 3 arc node bonejacks, a Stalker, some Bile Thralls, some Bane Thralls, a Scarlock, two Pistol Wraiths, and Gorman.  He won the die roll and opted to go first, setting up in a line.  Likewise I deployed in a line, with Haley roughly in the center and back a bit, the Stormguard on her right and the Sword Knights and Lancer straight in front of her.  The GMCA hung out on my far left. 

Terrain was a few forests on either side of the table just outside the deployment zones, and a hill in the middle.  The hill was rocky on the edges, so we called rough terrain to get onto the hill.

Turn 1 saw him pushing everything forward, pretty boring.  The Scarlock threw Occulation (or whatever it's called, the stealth spell) on the Biles while the Coven arced and Imprison right on the hill in the middle.  His Bane Thralls were coming up my right side behind a bonejack, so I shifted my Stormguard toward them.  Junior threw an Arc Shield on the SGs, Haley threw one on the SKs and then put up the barrier.  The Ironclad stuck with her, as the GMCA pushed to get a shot on the Stalker - not realizing that it was stealthed, I threw the shot away.  Oh boy, I'm gonna lose him now! 

With the barrier up I was able to keep him off me a bit.  His Pistol Wraiths pushed toward me, while the Stalker charged the GMCA.  No more GMCA.  The bonejack advanced and arced a spell on the Stormguard - the one that drops them by 2 armor and makes the first one to die explode; he was I think hoping to kill them before they got where they were going.  The Bane Thralls came behind that jack, while the Coven advanced toward the hill along with the rest of his army.  At this point I stared at the table for like two minutes - I thought his turn wasn't over yet; I thought he was contemplating what else to do.  Pretty stupid on my part; I told him I'd try to hurry to guarantee him four rounds.

My second turn saw me draw some blood of my own - Rhupert sang FOrced March and the Stormguard charged the Bonejack in front of them.  I opted to take individual attacks instead of CMA and tore the thing down; this also allowed me to arc lightning into the Bane Thralls behind it.  Here's where something happened that kind of made me feel bad about this game; after a few attacks I asked how much was left on that jack and he said "It's done."  More on this in a bit.  So no more attacks from me, the Bane Thralls lost two of their number to arced electricity.  The rest of the army just moved with Haley as she shifted up the right a bit further, the Sword Knights and Lancer screening her, the Ironclad staying nearby just in case. 

His third turn had the Coven take the hill and arc some spells into things; I don't remember what - not much died.  The pistol wraiths moved into position to kill stuff on the fourth turn.  In a major disappointment his Pistol Wraiths opened up on Haley - Of their 3 shots, 1 hit.  Pretty disappointing for him.  Unfortunately he forgot to feat; though that would have made no difference in what happened next.  His Bane Thralls ran away a bit more; another bonejack got near the Stormguard. 

Last round was called at the beginning of my third turn - but because of how I had inadvertently stalled earlier I told him I'd make it quick and give us a fourth round.  I ran my Sword Knights into melee with the Bile Thralls, wanting to make his purge as expensive as possible and to minimize what it would do to me.  The Coven were stealthed, BUT it was time for my assassination run.  The Lancer ran toward the Coven, but since they were stealthed I wasn't close enough to arc a spell into them.

That bile thrall next to one of the girls though?  Close enough to her!

Chain lightning the bile thrall, it dies.  I get 3 arcs.  First one hits one of the girls; boost damage and she dies.  Second one goes to the next girl; boost damage and she dies.  Third one is on the egregore and I'm out of focus so I don't do any damage.  Still, 2/3 coven members down means they're all but useless.  The stormguard push toward the bonejack in front of them, failing to kill it. 

His final turn is a VP grab.  I was a pretty good sport here, if I say so myself - I pointed out that if I didn't kill his caster the game would come down to VPs and he should try to grab as many as he could.  He went for Haley with the pistol wraiths - but of their 4 shots 3 missed.  The coven just ran, knowing they were D0MED.  His unengaged bile thrall purged - wiping out my Sword KNights, his Bile Thralls, and one of his Pistol Wraiths.  His other pistol wraith at some point ate an arcane bolt (I think it was the turn before; so I think they had shot at haley on Turn 3). 
On my final turn the Stormguard disabled the jack they were engaged with and cooked another Bane Thrall with lightning.  Haley ended her activation trying to arc at the coven but failing. 

So the game ended and went to VPs.  I added up a win for me - he got 4 VPs from me (the Sword Knights, the GMCA, and oh yeah the Piper that he shot in the final round with a pistol wraith.  I added up 2 VPs from his pistol wraiths, 2 from his bile thralls, 2 from the first bonejack, and 1 from the second bonejack. 

"Both bonejacks are only disabled," he points out.  "No VPs.  We tie."

What.  First off - I thought you got VPs for disabled jacks.  I guess you don't.  But more importantly - WHAT DO YOU MEAN THAT BONEJACK WAS ONLY DISABLED.  I asked him how it was, he said it was done.  I had several more attacks to make with the Stormguard in turn 2 if I wanted to; the only reason I didn't was because I had nothing to attack (I'd have liked to have arced more lightning into the Bane Thralls).  The jack had one box left.

I felt pretty cheesed.  I don't think for a minute that Chad did this deliberately - he's a good guy, good player and it was just an honest miscommunication.  But when he said "It's done" to me that meant it was done - destroyed, totaled, put a fork in it.  By not being specific he turned my win into a draw.  To his credit, he realized what had happened - acknowledging before I mentioned it that he said "It's done" and that must have confused me.  For a moment or two I thought about asking to continue Haley's activation - she was the last thing to activate in my final turn, and she hadn't moved or fired her Hand Cannon.  With needing not 2's to hit the disabled Bonejack, and with boosted damage on a POW12 destroying it was a certainty and would have given me the game.  I didn't; I'm a stickler for etiquitte and being a good sport but in retrospect I probably should have. 

So question - what would you have done here if you were in either position?

This game consequently was a real disappointment.  My first game against Coven and I think I had outplayed him - I outmanuevered him with the Stormguard and got at 2 of his 3 arc nodes; when he exposed the Coven I went for it like there was no tomorrow, and it comes down to a stupid communication error.  So I'm 0-0-1 and I'm off to play my next game.  Chad and I would meet again, through the miracle of bizarre bracketing.

Game 2: Killing Fields against Gorten

Game 2 saw me facing off against my buddy Wolf.  He's a long suffering merc player.  I took my Darius list.  Wolf hates Darius.  Fortunately today would be his revenge. 

Wolf's list looked like this:  Gorton w/ 2 or 3 gunbunnies, some High Shields, a Bokur on Gorton, Eiryss, Alexia, and Gorman di Wulf, and Herne and Jonn.  I won the die roll and opted to go first.  Terrain was interesting - mostly forests.  I set up on the right side, with a pretty clear view of both the right and center objectives.  I figured my Darius list could easily hold 2 of the 3 objectives.  He set up to match me, with the exception of Gorman - who set up on my left flank.  Yeah, Gorman's going to make a grab at that objective.  I could have tasked Eiryss with it; but I felt she'd be more valuable over on my side of the table - if I can get her in on Gorman it'll be awesome.

I started this game off with the mistake that would cost it for me.  This game was mostly about my mistakes - Wolf is a good player, and he's got his Gorton list down to an artform but honestly Gorton is just outclassed by Darius in most situations.  So what was my mistake?  The Journeyman tossed arcane shield on the Centurian.  I knew about Gorton's feat; I knew I should fortify that thing to make it immovable - I just didn't.  I can't even explain why not; I think I just got seduced by the idea of ARM24 or something.  Darius advanced, Full Throttle, Jackhammer on an Ironclad - I'd have the Ironclads with a couple halfjacks go after the center objective while the Centurian took the right one.  My Eiryss went invisible - his was lurking in some trees, and I knew I'd want mine to help deal with her - along with my GMCA.  Another big mistake I made this turn - I moved Darius in front of the Centurian intending to Crane it and get it to the objective on the first turn. 

His first turn he mostly advanced.  His Eiryss disrupted one of my Ironclads for lack of anything better to do.    In retrospect I should have craned an Ironclad to get it there on turn 1; having that center objective would be a big advantage for him.  Gorman moved toward his objective. 

My second turn saw me first advance a halfjack onto one of the points and mine it.  My Centurian then took up position on the objective, daring anyone to come get some.  The Ironclads weren't quite able to get on the middle objective.  I kill his Eiryss with a far shot from my GMCA, and then my Eiryss sets up in the woods.

Wolf's second turn had two really nice moves.  The Gun Bunnies and High Shields shot at the Centurian, scratching its paint a bit - he really wasn't going to hurt ARM24 with anything in his army that wasn't Gorton or the Bokur.  He had a Thrall Warrior run onto the center objective which was a brilliant play - it meant my Ironclads would have to kill the thrall before getting the objective.  He then had his Risen run and surround Eiryss - and his Bokur moved toward the scrum, salivating.  Now I had to get her out of there or she was toast.  He scores two points. 

My third turn was where the game went wrong - the Ironclads took the Thrall Warrior down and took the point, which was nice.    My Centurian stood there.  My GMCA had to shoot a Risen off of Eiryss, mostly wasting his shot - she ate the free strikes to move out.  I score two points, making the score 3-2. 

Wolf's third turn hosed me.  A shot from something (Gorton, maybe a gun bunny) killed Eiryss.  Gorman had a point.  And then he feated, and my Centurian went sliding away (along with the GMCA and two halfjacks).  A gun bunny advanced onto that point, and I'm basically hosed now.  WHY DID I NOT FORTIFY THAT CENTURIAN.  I am seriously kicking myself.  Herne and Jonn fire a barrage at the Ironclads and here is my once chance - if they kill the halfjack I can poop one out from Darius.  If my Centurian can kill his gun bunny that HJ can get on the objective and maybe I can pull out a tie.  The shot scatters off and the halfjack lives.  Wolf scores 2 points, making the score 4-4.

So Darius moves up, cranes a Centurian to get it near the gun bunny, throws JH on the centy and drops FT so the centy can kill.  Centy advances on the gun bunny and totally fails to kill it - I have never had my Centurian let me down like that.  Not that it would have mattered; I had nothing over there that could take that point. 

His fourth turn saw Gorton and the HIgh Shields put firepower into Darius, whom the Journeyman had come out of hiding to put an Arcane Shield on.  They get one good hit in; but other than that just scratches.  Last turn is called and he plinks away a few more times and we're through, with him scoring another 2 points to make the final score 6-4.  I scored all of 1 VP, for killing his Eiryss.

So now I'm 0-1-1.  Not an auspicious start.  I'm just kicking myself here - had I fortified that Centurian, I'd have won.  Had I judged the distances better and craned the IC so it could get to the center objective on turn 1, I'd have maybe at least tied.  Had I deployed Eiryss to counter Gorman, I'd have won. 

Game 3: Pendulum against Cryx

My opponent was Logan.  Nice guy, but this was his 9th ever Warmachine game.  He was playing a list that looked like this:  Coven, 2x Bonejacks, Deathjack, some Bane Knights, some Bile Thralls, and some McThralls.  I'm not going to go into detail - he was outclassed.  He was a good sport about it, but my Darius list is just way better.

I got first turn.  He deployed his DJ near Eiryss, who promptly disrupted it.  I advance.  His first turn he advances and arcs some spells into my Ironclads, scuffing them up some.  His DJ eats a McThrall.  Second turn I get my ICs in on his DJs and suffer awful rolls, failing to kill either one (but engaging them).  His DJ gets disrupted again.  I'm across the line by now, he isn't, so I score.  On his turn his Bile Thralls move forward and purge all over themselves and my Ironclads, dinging them up pretty good and destroying his Bonejacks.  His DJ sacrifices a McThrall and charges Eiryss, killing her.  He wants to charge my IC with his Bane Knights but I point out that if he doesn't get them across the midpoint he's going to give me another point.  So he runs them across the middle of the table.

On my third and final turn I have to choose between getting an IC in on the coven (whom he advanced in Perfect Conjunction) or putting my Centy on the DJ.  I figure I'll go for the DJ - centy charges and doesn't kill it, even with jackhammer - some bad die rolls.  One IC runs in to engage the Bane Knights, making it very risky for him to go after Darius.  The other IC was destroyed.  I move Halfjacks in to bring all 3 of my jacks back.

His final turn saw the DJ destroy the Centurian, the remaining couple of Bile Thralls purge and kill my last Ironclad.  His BKs poked at my IC but did nothing, so he used his final Bile Thralls to purge on it.  He killed the IC.

Time was called and I get the win.  The Darius list worked out exactly as expected on Pendulum - it's fast enough to get across the center line even without AD, and it's hard enough to stay there.

Game 4:  Assassination against Cryx

We all hate King of the Hill around these parts.  My buddy Jim came up with a good solution at a tournament he ran back in July - whoever has the worst record at the tournament picks the final scenario.  Through a total snafu of record, I'm matched against Chad - my opponent from the first game.  I'm a bit torqued off at this - when I brought it to the tournament organizer he pointed out that we were the only people who were 1-1-1, so we had the same tournament points.  That's great and all - but you know what?  We're not playing for any faction medals or anything; you should match us against people who we haven't played before.  Just left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.

This was a rematch of Haley vs. Coven.  It only went two turns - on the second turn he got a bonejack on the hill in the center.  I made the boneheaded move of forgetting that the elevation would allow him to ignore the guys screening Haley; she had no focus on her (she'd been keeping the TB going and firing arcane bolts at Pistol Wraiths while upkeeping arcane shield).  Perfect Conjunction, and it only takes two Stygian Abysses to kill her.

So at the end of the day I went 1-2-1.  I was pretty down on my experience at this tournament; both from the Game 1 tie and from the Game 4 matchup.  Part of the reason I play in tournaments is to play against new people, and playing the same guy twice (enjoyable as he was to play against) was just not very fun. 

Wolf came away with a 2-2 record.  Jim came away with a 3-1 record, losing to the eventual tourney winner in a very closely fought game.  Sadly Jim didn't win the Khador faction coin, but our boy Andy did so it was good.

My next tournament will likely be a 750 point steamroller run by Jim down here in Seattle.  Hopefully I can get my lifetime Steamroller record above .500 (it currently stands at 3-4-1).
   
Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut



Bellevue, WA

So as it turns out you do get VPs for disabled Jacks. One of my friends thinks that he knows the guy I played and that he probably knew this as well. I'm kind of bummed, I think I prefer to think that it was just an oversight.

On a brighter note that makes my tournament record 4-4-0. .500 baby!
   
Made in us
Clousseau





Wilmington DE

Sounds like a kind of disappointing time. Hope you had some fun in there!

Guinness: for those who are men of the cloth and football fans, but not necessarily in that order.

I think the lesson here is the best way to enjoy GW's games is to not use any of their rules.--Crimson Devil 
   
Made in us
[DCM]
Tilter at Windmills






Manchester, NH

Good report. There are two things he might have been confusing the rule with- to my understanding you don't get VPs for INERT jacks (from their warcaster being killed), and in Mangled Metal you have to either kill the caster or destroy all the jacks to get the win. Disabled doesn't cut it in that scenario. Still, you definitely should have had the win in this case.

As for your point of etiquette, honestly, I'd have requested the win. Or at least asked my opponent to let me roll the dice for the other Stormguard attacks you should had. When you asked how much it had left, he was obligated to tell you. When he said "it's done", you took that as synonymous with "no boxes," as you should have. This is his fault. Especially if he thought that disabled jacks don't give VPs.

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Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut



Bellevue, WA

Mannahnin: Yeah, oh well - water under the bridge.

What's depressing me is that one of the guys I play with says he knows the guy and is pretty sure he should have known better about the disabled jacks not giving up VP's, according to him the guy is a real rules lawyer type. That kind of depresses me; I prefer to think it was just an honest mistake.

Also: Intert jacks absolutely do give up their VPs. If you kill a caster you get VPs for him and his jacks.

We weren't playing Mangled Metal, we were playing Assassination - kill the caster is all that matters.
   
Made in us
Blood-Drenched Death Company Marine




There is a difference between rules-lawyers and cheaters. This sounds like the later.
   
Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut



Bellevue, WA

By rules lawyer type I meant "someone who is very familiar with the rules and should have known better."
   
Made in us
Fresh-Faced New User




Seattle, WA

In Chad's defense... while he is a rules lawyery type he doesn't have much steamroller experience, and doesn't really get to play very often. He asks me a lot of rules questions when playing.

Also, wasn't the judge stating you didn't get VPs for disabled jacks as well?

Anyway, I can vouch for Chad not intentionally cheating. I've known him a few years, and winning a game at a tourney really isn't that big a deal to him.
   
Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut



Bellevue, WA

Yeah like I said I don't think Chad did anything intentionally. He was a lot of fun to play against, which is why when other people suggested he did it intentionally that I felt kind of dubious. I don't think anyone wants to win a game that much.

And yeah the Judge had it wrong as well. Pretty much everyone did. I actually kind of fault the judge more than anyone else; it's pretty inexcusable IMO to run a tournament and not have a copy of all the rules + FAQs + errata + etc etc available. To me that's just basic tourney prep work. But oh well! I've got a 750 tourney this weekend; going to see how well Haley's epic incarnation fares...
   
Made in us
Fresh-Faced New User




Seattle, WA

Erik has made a few errors when judging. I think Nick lost a game a few tourneys ago at Docking Bay 93 when he lost VPs due to the Move Out rule... in a SR2.1 tourney. Which is why I always bring a copy of the SR rules with me to tourneys =/
   
 
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