So I played in my first Warmachine tournament yesterday. It was thrown together by Games Wizard in Ballard for the Hordes Unleashed event; was a 350 point Mangled Metal tournament with Hordes stuff as prize. First place got a hardcover Hordes book and a warpack box; second prize was a softcover hordes book and a blister; third prize was a softcover hordes book. There was also a Privateer Press employee there with a Hordes army; whoever got the most
VP out of him (out of a possible 12) would win a copy of the hardcover autographed by the Privateer Press staff.
My list:
Darius
Centurian
Centurian
It's a pretty sick list at 350; probably about as close to unbeatable as you can get. There are lists out there that can slow it down (Kreoss with his ability to shut off upkeep spells; and Goreshade with his ability to steal upkeep spells). Sorcha could probably make it pretty unhappy with her woosh; but the Centurians are just insanely resilient, brutally powerful, and Darius overcomes their only weakness (their low speed). I'm not that great a player, but my list practically plays itself. On a side note, I'd be interested to see if anyone could come up with a take-call-comers Mangled Metal list (350 points, jacks and caster only) that can take mine. I think a bonejack heavy Cryx might do it.
Anyway, my first game was against the Privateer Press guy playing Skorne.
- moreghul
- 3x Cyclops
- 1x Titan
The board was mostly flat with some hills and a quicksand feature. He was cagey with approaching me and I just ran at him. There was a large bit of rock in the center of the board and I used halfjacks to mine it, as well as to mine the space between us - I didn't want him flanking me with a cyclops, and I wanted to control the speed at which we closed. Eventually we got into it and my Centurians did their thing - grinding away at his warbeasts. One Centurian went in first, put some serious hurt on the Titan before going down. In the process of killing that Centurian he put a ton of Fury on his warbeasts - when frenzy checks came around the Titan whacked a Cyclops who proceeded to finish off the Titan.
With the Titan down and two of his cyclopses pretty injured I decided it was time to end it. Darius and his Centurian moved in and engaged - I got a halfjack over to the Centurian wreck and popped my feat. He commited Morghul to try to pull down the second Centurian and failed - the next turn the Centurian impaled Morghul on its piston spear.
At the end of the game I'd earned 10VP, making me the guy to beat for the autographed Hordes box.
My first real game of the tournament was against a guy playing Mercs. He was a newb, and not very good. His list looked like:
Ashlynn
Mule
Nomad
That other Merc jack that's like a mini Lancer
I won, pretty handily. Didn't need my feat, didn't even take serious damage - Halfjacks kept a good chunk of his army at bay while my Centurians tore down the Nomad and the Lancer light. Then a Centurian went after Ashlynn - she survived about three or four rounds of melee before succumbing (the girl is a *female dog* to hit!). So now I'm 1-0.
Game two was against a Cryx list. First time I've ever played against Cryx. His list was:
Goreshade
Harrower
Defiler
Reaper
Goreshade is annoying. My Darius list likes two upkeep spells - Fortify and Jackhammer. Goreshade can steal and upkeep spell from my Jacks and put them on his jacks; if I try to drop the upkeep I take
D6 damage. What's more, he's got a nasty spell that puts a good deal of damage on warjacks and ignores armor. Combine this with the fact that the board was seperated by a river with room for one warjack and I was not happy.
We jockeyed across the bridge - he plinked at me repeatedly with his guns and spells; doing some damage here and there. Eventually he made the mistake of leaving the Harrower near the bridge - a halfjack system locked it and a Centurian set up a charge, on the next turn I was across the bridge and the Harrower was dead. Goreshade popped his feat, threw a bunch of Bane thralls down and had the Defiler join them in trashing the Centurian - but that didn't matter; I had a foothold on that side of the bridge. That same turn his spells and shooting finally dropped the second Centurian that was screening Darius; I popped my feat and they both came back to life. The Bane Thralls all died, the Defiler died, the Reaper was reduced to a smoking ruin by Meltdown and the Steam Cannon.
Note: the reason the game didn't end when both Cents went down is because the Halfjacks count as warjacks. It's the thing that just pushes my list over the top in Mangled Metal - the only way to beat me is to caster kill. You simply cannot kill my Centurians twice before you lose all your warjacks.
Result: Win for me, I'm 2-0, but I've faced pretty light competition so far - easily the two worst players in the tournament.
Game three was Cryx again. His list:
Goreshade
2x Slayer
Deathripper
This guy was a good player. The battle would be fought on a hill in the middle of the board - to give me a bit of a disadvantage I agreed that instead of being a sloped hill (which I could charge up freely) it would be an obstacle - 1" movement to climb up the hill and blocking charges. He positioned himself on the hill with the two Slayers on either side, back a bit, and the Deathripper front and center. This was his crucial mistake - with 2" reach my Centurians were able to charge and destroy the deathripper. The same turn, a halfjack system locked the movement system of one of the Slayers that would have a charge on me.
On his next turn he put three focus on the immolized Slayer (
wtf I asked at the time) and used Goreshade's feat and dropped the bane thralls right in front of the Centurians. He then started attacking with the bane thralls - after the third aattack it occured to me to ask him if Goreshade's activation was meant to be finished there. He slapped himself and said he didn't mean to start activating the Bane Thralls. I asked him waht he had planned for Goreshade - if I didn't think it was game changing I'd let him go ahead. Turns out he has a spell that lets him kill a Bane Thrall and teleport a Slayer to its place (hence the three focus on the immobile Slayer). I declined to allow him to do it; it was a big game changer and in a tournament you simply can't make those kinds of dumb mistakes. In a friendly game I'd have been all for it - but part of playing in a tournament is not doing dumb things like that.
So, Centurians kill the bane thralls - one takes a horrible beating. The slayer charges in and drops a Centurian, but I feat and bring it back. Dead slayer. The other Centurian charges the other Slayer and starts beating on it - he commits Goreshade and I go ahead and charge Goreshade with the first Centurian, killing him.
Result: Win for me, I'm 3-0 and now in prize contention. In fact, I'm one of two people left in the tournament whose undefeated at this point.
In retrospect I could have let him bring the Slayer in like he wanted to - it would have killed a Centurian one turn earlier but I'd have just feated and brought it back and killed the Slayer and Bane Thralls anyway. It was just prolonging the inevitable; his mistake was letting that bonejack die - what he should have done is use it to flank me and arc spells into Darius. He tried to play my game (grinding fight, warjack on warjack) and with the Darius list that is simply a fight that's almost impossible for me to lose.
Game 4 was against frightnight's Khador. We'd played this game twice in the previous week and both times I'd managed to win. This was no different. As usual dice totally hosed him - I got cocky and left Darius open to being charged by a Juggernaut, which proceeded to not hurt him whatsoever. Two turns later the Juggernaut died and ended the game (his Kodiak had died after being charged by a Jackhammered Centurian). If you've been following my other thread you know that frightnight has been my bane - well, I learned how to play Darius properly and at 350 he just doesn't have the tools to get around me. I always get the charge, I system lock his stuff to keep it from fighting back, and my Centurians simply rip through his heavy warjacks.
Oh, his list was Vlad, a Juggernaut, and a Kodiak.
So now I'm 4-0 and I'm guaranteed either first or second place. Sadly the second Cryx player managed to put up 11VP on the Hordes guy, so he won the signed book. He was kind of a dick - he ended up winning a softcover as well and rather than give it as a consolation prize to frightnight he opted to keep it to trade. Mind you: in addition to his signed book he also had previously purchased a softback. Yeah, kind of a little punk. I'd have totally given someone else the additional book if I had won both.
So the only person I have left to play is currently 3-0 and has to play one more game. I figure he should play the other guy's army first, so that way if he wins we can have a final battle of 4-0 vs. 4-0. He plays, wins, and we fight.
His list:
Vlad
Spriggan
Destroyer
Pretty similar to frightnigh's; it has a bombard though. He's not as good as frightnight though - way too tentative. Same result as always - the Centurians get in there, rip his Jacks down. He got pretty frustrated at the end. I don't blame him much - I'm not a great player; my list practically plays itself and it's got to suck to run into it but honestly he didn't deserve to be playing for first place; he had some luck. He didn't have the aggression you need to win at Warmachine. He needed to go for the jugular - get Vlad in on Darius, throw some pain on him, anything. Instead he held back, bizarrely prancing Vlad around the edge of the battle - never letting him get into the fight and help out his warjacks. The Destroyer went down first (no warjack will survive two Centurian charges when one is jackhammered). Then the Spriggan died - halfjacks kept it from fighting back.
So at the end of the day I went 5-0 and took first prize - a hardcover Hordes book and a Trollblood warpack. All in all around 80 bucks in swag. I also got a Cygnaran champion coin.
Current Warmachine tournament record: 5-0
