024 - Clogcon Masters Game 4: Makeda2 vs. Tanith

Prior to this fourth game we were informed that there would be a cut-off, meaning that there wouldn't be a fifth game for us as it didn't really matter all that much. Only the tables that competed for the Podium would be played. I didn't stand a chance at that after loosing twice in a row, so, a bit annoying, but i got even more determined to finish the tournement with a bang.

Facing me was Robin and his Tanith/Baldur2? pair. He had played against my list several times before as he regularly plays against Johan (Who i tweaked the list with in the weeks prior to Clogcon), but didn't really feel comfortable because of that. The decision to drop Makeda was Easy. No Una2 and no Kromac makes kitties happy.

And in return, i got Tanith. Game on!

My list:
Supreme Archdomina Makeda WB+24
 - Despoiler - 18
 - Basilisk Krea - 7
Tyrant Radheim - 9
Mortitheurge Willbreaker - 4
Mortitheurge Willbreaker - 4
Void Spirit - 4
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer - 6
Paingiver Beast Handlers min - 5
Praetorian Ferox max - 21
Praetorian Ferox max - 21

His List:
Tanith the Feral Song
 - Warpwolf Stalker - 19
 - Gorax Rager . 7
 - Scarsfell Griffon - 8
 - Scarsfell Griffon - 8
 - Scarsfell Griffon - 8
Una the Falconeer - 4
 - Scarsfell Griffon - 8
 - Scarsfell Griffon - 8
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw - 17
Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress - 3
Swamp Gobber Chef - 1
Shifting Stones - 3
Sentry Stones &Mannikins - 5
Sentry Stones &Mannikins - 5
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew - 2

Pre Battle Thoughts and Deployment:

I haven't played much against Griffons before (At least not the Circle kind), but after dojoing list for Una2, i know that they can pack quite a punch. And be annoying as hell with their high DEF. I outthreat him by a mile though, and with ARM13, Ferox should massacre them if i can just land some hits.
Scenario was Take and hold. Robin won the Roll Off, but decided to let me start as he wanted to stop me from getting a side where i could park Makeda behind a Wall B2B with the Flag.
I want to start Scoring ASAP, so i deploy slightly skewed towards my flag. The Void Spirit deploys opposite his flag for contesting Duties.
He deploys most of his Griffons opposite my flag, the rest is fairly central. Sentry stones on either flank.

I Figure i'm really not all that afraid of the Sentry Stone Sprays by themselves, and i reall want to put the pressure on him earle, so i run everything up quite far. Storm Rager on Radheim.

Gobber Chef use comfort food to kill two Mannekins, Neat trick. Mannekins andvance and sprays, Damage is irrelevant. The rest of his stuff move up.Star Crossed isn't up yet.

Makeda moves to the flag. Without Star Crossed, i don't see the need to Feat just yet. Despoiler moves up to block her off a bit and be more in play. Krea casts animus to keep her safe from shooting. Blue Ferox advance, leaving one bird on one box, and dealing a bit of damage to the other. I fail to kill the right Sentry stone though, leaving it on one box after i flop my damage rolls. Red Ferox Consolidate their position, one of themkill a mannekin and contests his flag, while also being annoying behind the wall. Void Spirit moves up behind it.

He commits heavilly on my right flank, killing Five cats (Three on the right witha ton of birds, one with Snapjaw who charge in to contest, and one with Shooting, Sprays and a bird. He spends a lot of time doing so however.

And i have barelly spent any time at all ( 12-ish minutes total on my first two turns and deployment). I can take my time to consider my approach. Star Crossed is up, so no is as good a time to feat as any i believe. So i do. Tycom and Void SPirit kill an angry bird on the left flank, the void spirit teleports to engage both the Mannekins on that flank. Despoiler demolish Snapjaw. Leaving the rest of my cats free to kill all but one of the remainging Griffons, which is left with a crippled mind and spirit. The right stone bites the dust as well. The Krea even contributes by lovering the DEF of a Giffon. 1-0

Stalker gets primaled and kills the Despoiler. The Bird is healed, but miss it's attacks on both Radheim and a Ferox, leaving it stranded. He shoots the Void Spirit dead and use the Gorax to throwthe TyCom out of Stay Death. Unfortunatelly for him, he now engage all the Mannekins (He's not knocked down due to Feat). With time constraints a real risk he forgets to contest me with anything. 2-0

Tough on a Ferox unit, Puppet Master on Radheim. Radheim and one other Ferox kill the Stalker, Beasthandlers charge the Gorax and last Bird, the latter left on one box, I also fill both of them with Fury, and since Tanith is now full after the Stalker was killed, that's bad news for him. TyCom destroys it's Body and Mind. Ferox position themselves to block his access to my flag. Wrong Eye goes down as well (He charged in to try and kill some Ferox the previous turn.) 3-0

His only chance now is to pass the threshold check on the Griffon and have miss the Free strike with the beasthandler.  He pass the check, but i roll the 8+ needed to hit and kill it. The Gorax Frenzies and kill a Beast handler. and his remaining pieces can't really do any damage to me.

Victory to the Tyrants!

Post Battle Thoughts:

A close fought game, but the attrition strength of this list shows again. It's amazing how strong Stay Death gets once the game progresses, and your opponent have fewer and fewer pieces to deal damage with.
I'm really happy with how this game turned out. I made a plan, went with it, and it all panned out just as i had hoped.
Another great opponent, and a really good end to the Masters Tournement (Even though i ofcourse wished that i would have had the chance to play for the finals.

No matter what i'm really happy with how my first major tournement outside of Norway panned out.

It was pretty late in the evening at that point, and most of the Norwegians taking the trip had nothing to do on Sunday. There was only one Singles tournement (The Invitationals), and only one of us was qualified for that (Jarle). There was some talk about setting up some additional team tournements to give the remaining players something to do.

I ended up teaming with Nico (Ret) and Tor Egil Cygnar). We talked a bit about how to approach pairings, and figured out that Makeda is insanelly strong in a three man team setting. It's so easy to pair her into good match ups, and even easier to avoid the bad. And when you take into consideration how strong Retribution and Cygnar are, we had a pretty strong team.

The team name was obvious..

Team Murder-Kitties!

023 - Clogcon Masters Game3: Mordikaar vs. Irusk2

So after a stupid and demoralizing loss game2, my chances of winning was gone. That didn't mean that i would quit however. I came to Holland to play, and to prove that Skorne can still play strong competitively.

Game 3 was up, andon the other side of the table was Marc with his Khador. I don't remember his second list, but he Had Irusk2 at least. I really wanted to drop Makeda. But the fear of getting list-locked, and the fact that both his lists seemed like a nice fit for Mordikaar convinced me to drop him instead.

My list:
Void Seer Mordikaar WB+29
 - Despoiler - 18
 - Titan Gladiator - 14
 - Cyclops Raider - 9
Tyrant Radheim - 9
Mortitheurge Willbreaker - 4
Extoller Soulward - 3
Void Spirit - 4
Void Spirit - 4
Paingiver Bloodrunner Master Tormentor - 4
Paingiver Bloodrunners - 9
Praetorian Ferox max - 21
Paingiver Beasthandlers min - 5

His List:
Supreme Kommandant Irusk WJ+27
 - Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator - 4
 - Behemoth - 24
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich - 4
Alten Ashley - 5
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor - 5
Winter Guard Rifle Corps min - 8
 - Winter Guard Rocketeer - 2
 - Winter Guard Rocketeer - 2
Iron Fang Pikemen max - 15
 - Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard
Iron Fang Uhlans Max - 20
Winter Guard Mortar Crew - 5


Pre Battle Thoughts and Deployment:
So. There's a lot of Shooting. And he kinda sorta negates my Feat. Luckilly for me, i still have some Anti Shooting tech in Stealth and the Feat, and my entire list is designed to massacre Infantry. I want to get up the board as fast as possible, remove Scenario Threats and engage his lines as soon as possible.

The Scenario is Entrenched, and i get to go first. He gives me a side with a nice house to hide Mordikaar behind. I deploy most of my stuff behind my own zone. The idea is to have Mordikaar hide behind the house until i have cleared enough stuff to Safely move him in to score. Meanwhile i have the Raider and Void Spirits on my left flank opposite his zone . Void Spirits are nice contestors as he doesn't have too many magical attacks, and the Raider can start shooting at things if he moves for his zone.
He deploys pretty centrally with the Pikemen opposite my zone and Iruskwith the Uhlans ready to move over to his own.

I move stuff up, taking care not to let him fire directly at me.

I forget to take a picture after his turn. He moves stuff up and tries to scatter a few templates at me, two bloodrunners bite the dust.Uhalns create a fort around Irusk at the edge of his Zone. Just outside of 9.5" of the Void Spirits.

I make a big mess of my activations. Both forgetting to use Apparition, and activating my handlers too early, meaning i have some Fury issues. Without the extra 2" from apparition i can't Jam him properly, but i do the best i can with the bloodrunners. Despoiler, Gladiator and Radheim create a fort around Mordikaar who advances a bit to get everything in my Feat. I placed Radheim on the wrong side though.. (He should be on the left side so as to threaten Irusk if he advances.) Lessons learned i guess.
Void Spirits runs into his zone to contest, I make another mistake though as i place one of them within 4" of his objective. Raider shoots and kill an Uhlan.

Unfortunatelly, i forget to take pictures the rest of the game..

Most of the Bloodrunners die, but otherwise my army survives relatively intact. Orin takes advantage of my slight positioning mistake and kill a void spirit by arcing a Chain lightning off the objective. Pikemen combine to kill two Ferox and Reposition to contest my zone. Uhlans try to kill the left most Ferox, but fails. Three of them box in Irusk who tries to magic the remaining Void Spirit, but he fails. He's now really exposed, only camping a single Focus and to make matters worse for him, he forgets to Feat.

I take some time (I'm quite a lot up on time) to consider my possibilities here. I can't get to the Behemoth with my Beasts. and the Bloodrunners are kinda too damaged to suficiently thin his ranks. The Raider Frenzies and charge an Uhlan. It looks like i'm a bit too much down on attrition, and i don't have enough hitting power or Recursion to turn it around.

I do have a pretty decent assassination run though. I can get Two Void Spirits (Despoiler can spawn one off an Uhlan), Two Ferox and a couple of Essence Blasts on Irusk, which should easilly be enough, right? Gladiator charge and kill the Uhlan that engages the leftmost Ferox. Despoiler runs to get within 5" of the Uhlans blocking Irusk.
The Ferox activates, walk and Pounce sees two of them in Irusk's back arc, the last onego for the kill on one of the Uhlans to get a new Spirit. Things starts going wrong though, as i can't seem to roll the 7+ i need to hit him in the back. I get in one hit which he use the Focus to get rid off. The Uhlan toughs twice to survive the last Ferox. Mordikaar activates, but i forget to give him puppet master first. This turns out to be pretty vital as i still can't for the life of me hit him, even missing on a boosted 6+ on an essence blast in the back. The second one hits but i roll miserably on the damage roll and only do 5 boxes. I do kill an Uhlan though, so i get the extra Void Spirit.

Which now activates and calmly walk over to his Back arc, and Miss... I Check once again to see if there's any chance of me getting Radheim in to help, but he's half an inch too far away. Which means it's all down to the last Void Spirit. I need to do 12 Boxes of Damage at dice off 3 with Four Dice (Boosted from Charging and extra Dice from Annihilator.) Which means i need to roll 15.

I hit! Damage dice are thrown and the first three shows 6, 5 and 2, the last one rolls off the table, and all i have to do now is roll a 2+ and the game is won. But the dice gods aren't with me at all at the moment, and the final dice provide me with a 1.

With a sigh of Relief Behemoth and Winter Guard proceeds to shoot Mordikaar to pieces.

Sadly, Loss to the Tyrants

Post Battle Thoughts: 

Another annoying loss. And again, it's probably due to mistakes i made. A puppetmaster re-roll on the missed Essence blast would probably have seen the job finished. And i probably wouldn't be as far down on attrition if i had remembered to use apparition to have the range i needed to properly jam his Shooters.
Granted, i was a bit lucky myself as he forgot to feat, but honestly, that shouldn't have made too much of a difference. I would have gotten one less Ferox in on Irusk, and one of the Essence blasts would have been from the Front instead, but other than that, the entire run would be pretty much the same. Not taking care to have Radheim closer to the action to help out with the run was a mistake as well.

Still, it was an enjoyable game, and another great opponent, that even bought me a beer afterwards. And at least, i would not need to worry about getting list-locked.

022 - Clogcon Masters Game2: Makeda2 vs Witch Coven

Game 2, and i find Vincent and his Cryx on the opposite side of the table. I don't get to play against Cryx very often, but i know that Makeda should be good against the Coven. In addition, Recon is one of Makedas strongest scenarios. His other list is Scaverous, which i don't know much about, and when in doubt, use your comfort-list, AKA Makeda.

My list:
Supreme Archdomina Makeda WB+24
 - Despoiler - 18
 - Basilisk Krea - 7
Tyrant Radheim - 9
Mortitheurge Willbreaker - 4
Mortitheurge Willbreaker - 4
Void Spirit - 4
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer - 6
Paingiver Beast Handlers min - 5
Praetorian Ferox max - 21
Praetorian Ferox max - 21

His list:
The Witch Coven of Garlghast WJ+26
 - Egregore
 - Scarlock Thrall - 4
 - Deathjack - 23
 - Stalker - 8
 - Barathrum - 15
 - Deathripper - 6
Aiakos, Scourge of the Meridius - 4
 - Stalker - 8
 - Stalker - 8
Machine Wraith - 2
Machine Wraith - 2
Necrotech - 2
Satyxis Raiders max - 16
 - Satyxis Raider Sea Witch - 3

Pre Battle thoughts and Deployment:

The MAT aspect of the feat can be a real pain, but i just completelly ignore the LOS part. Stalkers are really dangerous for me, but i out threat them, so as long as i'm careful i should be fine. I win the roll off, and go first. I deploy centrally, he does the same. My plan is to skew right eventually (There's a house i can exploit between the Zone and the Flag.) I'll  try to find a scenario opening, and use my superior threat to force him to come to me.

I run everything up to just outside of his threat. Storm Rager gets cast.

He move up as well.

I move things more forward. I leave a few ferox in Barathrum's threatrange, hoping he tries to go for them, but make sure that no stalkers can reach me. Void SPirit starts to move towards "his" flag on the left. I forget to move Makeda though...

Coven Feats and move up, thinking himself pretty safe. Barathrum takes the bait and tries to kill a Ferox and Drag below to safety, but my opponent doesn't realize that Stay Death completelly stops that move. and that i pretty much completelly ignore his Feat ( i don't need LOS anyways, and my own Feat deal with the MAT debuff. A Machine wraith charge a Ferox on the Right Flank, but it's stopped by tough.

Beast Handlers enrage Despoiler and kill the Machine Wraith. Ferox deal a bunch of damage to his objective, and kill pretty much all the Satyxis. Despoiler demolish Barathrum. I contemplate using Radheim to finish the objective off, but instead i just move him up a bit to provide Dodge and stay safe. I spent my Feat this turn as well.

Not knowing how my list shows again, as my opponent activates his stalkers after everything else, letting me use Stay Death a lot more than i normally would be able to. I still lose several Ferox though.

I kill two stalkers, more Satyxis, and leave the last Stalker on a single box of movement. I make a huge mistake though, as i spend a lot of time and effortgetting things out of the way to allow Despoiler to charge DJ and finish him off, only realising that i can't get to him because of the Rough terrain between them which i believed was a trench. This means that Ferox is in a less than ideal position, I moved Makeda into the zone and planned to use the TyCom to destroy the Objective (Should be easy enough since it's allready down 8-ish boxes and it would be Dark Shrouded by Despoiler.) Oh well..

Things look dark for my opponent, and i really can't see how he can possibly win this. With Stalkers gone, he pretty much have no way to grind through me. So when DJ, Aiakos and the last remaining Satyxis starts pounding Ferox i spend all my Fury to keep them alive. Unfortunatelly, not knowing what the enemy can do now come back to bite me, as he now move his Arc node in a position where he can see Makeda. I thought there was no way for him to get to me, so i didn't really try to block LOS to her at all, and i had cut myself down to 9 boxes because i wanted to be cautious and not Frenzying with my beasts. He Triangles the Witches and double boost two two Styggian Abysses, and the Archdomina goes down!

Sadly, The Tyrants lose..

Post Battle Thoughts

That was annoying. I feel like i play a perfect game, up untill i make two massive mistakes that costs me the game. The worst part is, i didn't even need to keep the Ferox Alive. My last three Fury was spent keeping the single Ferox that DJ engaged alive. Had i just let him have that, the game would basically be over the next turn as i would probably kill everything he had left except the coven. Or even better, had i just thought to keep Makeda in a safe spot, i could have moved a Beast Handler a fraction of an Inchfurther to the left, and there would be absolutelly no way for him to even see her.

Anyways, a great game, and another great opponent that kept the mood of the game good even though i kept punishing him. And Hopefully, i have learnt from this mistake.

021 - Clogcon Masters Game1: Makeda2 vs. Kallandra

Clogcon! After Weeks of preparation i was finally there.

The past months have seen me trying to split my time between wast amounts of work, and trying to figure out what to pair with Makeda. Which means that i haven't had much time to blog unfortunatelly. I went through a lot of different lists, even changing the layout of Makeda to try and find the best pair Skorne can bring to the table.

Makeda was obvious. She's easily the strongest list in faction, the one with the most best Match-ups, and maybe even in the top 10 in the entire game. But she have a few weaknesses, as i wrote about a while back. The worst offenders are: Caine2, Haley3, High Reclaimer, Kallus and casters like that. Una2 is also in that list, but that's a whole other Story...

So, which of our Warlocks can deal with the aforementioned casters? I tried a lot of different casters and list, and in the end, i was left with Hexxy2 and Mordikaar. My friend and fellow tyrant Johan from Sweden went with Hexxy, but i felt that i did not have the time to learn how to play him properly, so i went with Mordikaar with Void Spirits and Despoiler. A list that pretty much plays itself against many opponents.

Anyways. Onto the game!

First game. Xavi with Trollbloods and a Kallandra/Grissel2 (I think?) Pairing. Without Madrak, i feel completelly safe dropping Makeda into Trollbloods. In return i got Kallandra. Let's go!

Lists:

Me:

Supreme Archdomina Makeda WB+24
 - Despoiler - 18
 - Basilisk Krea - 7
Tyrant Radheim - 9
Mortitheurge Willbreaker - 4
Mortitheurge Willbreaker - 4
Void Spirit - 4
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer - 6
Paingiver Beast Handlers min - 5
Praetorian Ferox max - 21
Praetorian Ferox max - 21

His List:
Callandra Truthsayer, Oracle of the Glimmerwood WB+27
 - Trollkin Runebearer - 4
 - Dire Troll Mauler - 15
 - Earthborn Dire Troll - 15
 - Rök - 21
 - Troll Bouncer - 9
Troll Whelps - 4
Hutchuk, Ogrun Bounty Hunter - 6
Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress - 4
Northkin Fire Eaters - 7
Northkin Fire Eaters - 7
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes min - 6
 - Stone Scribe Elder - 3
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew - 2

Pre Battle Thoughts and Deployment:

So.. A lot of armour and hitting power. Not too much mobility though, which is really good for me as the Scenario is Incursion. Star-Crossed can be a real pain, and Befuddle can mess up Stay Death ranges. But i don't think he has the number of Quality attacks to break through the catwall.

I win the roll off and decide to go first. He picks a side with two walls. I deploy centrally, with the Void Spirit on the flank i suspect he will go for. The plan is simple enough. Get up the board and start the grind. On Incursion i believe the Atrition aproach is better ten trying for the Scenario straight away, but if i can find an opening, i'll use my speed to take it.
He deploys behind a central hill, one unit of Fire eaters on each flank.

I run everything up. Iwant to put the pressure on him early, so i let him get to a few Ferox with his Fire Eaters if he wants to, But the damage should be insignificant. Storm Rager goes up on Radheim.

He walks everythin up, casts Star Crossed, and start spraying the Ferox. He hits with every single spray, and roll high enough on the damage rolls to knock four of them down to one box. and force me to Stay Death them.

Void Spirit runs to the Left Flag, Ferox charge in to get boosted Attack rolls to avoid the worst effect of Star Crossed, while allowing me to save my Feat for later turns. I still roll miserably though and only manage to kill two of them, not even knocking down the remaining four.. Really not a great start.. I make sure to keep everything within Dodge and Stay Death and contest the central and Right flag. The remaining Ferox try to Jam his beasts. Hopefully making sure he can't get a ton of work done.

This ofcourse fails as his dice are still red hot. Not a single miss, and high Damage rolls sees me burn through my Fury in no time at all. when all is said and done, and Hutchuk has entered play, i'm five cats down. He runs the Mauler over to contest the left flag.

I figure i can let him have the right flag if that means i can get the centre and left under control. Unfortunatelly, while his dice are glowing, mine still seems to be tired from the trip to Amsterdam. I still can't kill Fire Eaters, (Only killing one with Radheim after he finish of Rôk after Despoiler fails to kill him), and the Mauler is left with one box in each aspect. I even Feat, but to no avail. I fail to clear any of the flags, and now the right flag is open for the taking.

His dice finally fails him a bit, and even with feat, he fails to do any real damage. Despoiler goes down to the combined effort of Earthborn, Bouncer and Fire Eaters, but on the other flankhe miss every single to hit roll with his Mauler, which was completelly boxed in by Ferox, so i get to dodge away. And Tough Rolls starts happening as well. Hutchuk moves in to score and kills a couple of handlers with a grenade.

Fire eaters still refuse to die, and i have to use way too much effort to kill the mauler. Willbreakers move in to score and contest. Tycom deals a bit of damage to the bouncer, and i jam the earthborn.

While he have much more success, killing me than i have killing him, he's starting to get dangerously low on the clock. He have no way to contest my left flag, so instead he tries to clear the centre. Stay death means the damage is non significant. Hutchuk kills the contesting willbreaker, but when the earthborn fails to hit the jamming Ferox i dodge over to contest.

After this i don't have the time to take any more photos, but what happens is i move to 2-1 in his turn. In my turn i clear the centre and Radheim moves to the flag to score. Moving me to 4-1. Makeda pulls back so that it's impossible to assassinate her and i block his access to the left flag. It's now impossible for him to contest me in his turn and that's all she wrote.

Victory to the Tyrants!

Post battle thoughts:

Whew! that was a close one. After my dice failed me and he got so much work done T2, i thought i would be done for, but i once again prove how strong this list gets late game, attritionwise. Stay Death get's exponentially more powerfull as the game progresses and there's fewer and fewer models that can deal damage. and in the end i manage to grind him out.

A great game, a great opponent, and a great start to the tournement!

Quick Update

I'm back!

I know i've been gone for a long while.. Work and life have gotten in the way og pretty much anything miniature related.

I have managed to get a few games in, some of them really good, but theres been no time nor energy to report them.

But that is all in the past. Right now i'm at the airport, waiting for my flight to Amsterdam for Clogcon!

I'm really excited for my first major WH tourney abroad, and reports and analysies will be posted shortly. But now i'll just bore you with my lists.

Makeda2
 - Despoiler
 - Krea
Willbreaker
Willbreaker
Void Spirit
Radheim
Ferox max
Ferox Max
Handlers min
TyCom.


Mordikaar
 - Despoiler
 - Gladiator
 - Raider
Radheim
Void Spirit
Void Spirit
Soulward
Willbreaker
PBMT
Handlers min
Ferox Max
Bloodrunners

Quick about them.

Makeda is changed to fit Despoiler and Void spirit. Despoiler for the free upkeep on Storm Rager, the Void Spirit for an incredibly annoying contestor. The krea helps against shooting and in a pinch could help assassinations.

Mordikaar plays well into things like Kallus and HR that Makeda struggles with. He's also decent into most shooting lists and can give eCaine a fair fight.

I'll be back with a more thourough