Who’s the Boss tournament – 21/10/17
My list:
Who’s the Boss?
-Imperatus
-Hemera
Elara, Tyro of the Third Chamber
-Discordia
Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress
Arcanist Mechanik
Max Dawnguard Sentinels
-Dawnguard Sentinel Officer and
Standard Bearer
House Shyeel Arcanists
House Shyeel Battle Mages
This Saturday we did something a
bit different at the club. Adam Jones wanted to run his first tournament as a
Who’s the Boss, with all non-Grymkin casters in the pool, and one re-roll to
use over the course of the 4 games. I decided to bring out my 3 favourite
character Jacks, one on Elara so I control some of my abilities, Max Sentinels
as they are good on their own, but could take any caster buff extremely well,
and the house Shyeel units as support and disruption. I got there extremely
excited and the first casters were drawn.
Game 1: Servath Reznik, Wrath of
Ages vs Ben Leach
His List:
Asphyxious the Hellbringer
-Vociferon
-Mountain King
-Mulg the Ancient
Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress
Max Trollkin Sluggers
Max Trollkin Fennblades
-Officer & Drummer
Max Krielstone Bearer & Stone
Scribes
-Elder
First
game of the day sees me use a huge based caster for the first time, and he
seems pretty interesting. My opponent has Gaspy3 with his trolls, and Unyielding on the Mountain King and Mulg
was definitely going to be a problem. I won first turn, which helped and got
moving.
I don’t
feel like I can make the most of Reznik’s spells, so settle for putting up Lamentaion and casting Death March on the Sentinels, gaining a
benefit of the additional Mat boost if not the Vengeance. My forces run up, ready for next turn.
Ben
advances tentatively, not wanting to get into Imperatus’ threat range. Ashen Veil is cast on the Fennblades,
boosting them to a respectable Def17 and Mobility
is cast to help Mulg get himself up the table.
This is
beginning as a far more cagey game than I was expecting, but I feel that I can
still get a strong Alpha Strike if I am patient and don’t throw anything away.
I advance to get into the zones and throw forward a few models to cause trouble
and hopefully trigger Vengeance.
Hemera shoots into the Sluggers, killing 2 and knocking down a third before Repositioning away.
Ben
doesn’t want to trigger Vengeance for
only 2 Sentinels so settles for just some more repositioning, and taking out
the Battle Mage that I had thrown forward and runs up the remaining Sluggers to
jam me up. He gets into the zones but doesn’t contest my flag, so I score a
point to lead 1-0.
I
consider a few ways to play this game out. I have a chance at an assassination,
but I wouldn’t be able to get the Curse bubble
there, so it would be extremely dicey. If I can kill either the Mountain King
or Mulg I would feel good about my position but with Unyielding and the Stone bubble these are big asks. I opt for a
scenario play, using my Feat and jack guns to clear out all but one of the
Fennblades, and having the Sentinels take down the remaining Sluggers. I get
overexcited and move reznik to the point where he can score both the flag and
the right zone to move into a 3-0 lead.
By
pushing Reznik too far forward I have left Ben a way out of the game through
assassination. After clearing the path and setting up with Mobility and Strength from the Stone Mulg is able to charge a
Sentinel and buy attacks on Renik. Thankfully I had taken out Lanyssa in the
previous turn, so he was only able to buy 3 attacks on my caster, and left him
on 4 boxes. I scored the flag in his turn, and immediately ended mine to win
5-0.
VICTORY
I enjoyed
Reznik a lot, but definitely got too aggressive with him and could have ended
up getting him killed. The way the feat melted Fennblades was pretty
entertaining but I have no idea how I could have taken out the Unyielding beast without delivering all
my force to it at once. Ben was a great opponent and we had a good laugh
throughout.
Game 2: Captain Allister Caine vs Mark Williams
His List:
Lich Lord Venethrax
-Carnivean
-Seraph
-Typhon
-Naga
Nightlurker
Blighted
Nyss Shepherd
Spell
Martyr
Spell
Martyr
The
Forsaken
Blackfrost
Shard
Max
Blighted Nyss Raptors
Hellmouth
Game 2
and I hit the absolute jackpot. Caine2 has gone out of favour with Cygnar
players, but even if you took his shot types away completely his kit would be
amazing in my list. Conversely for Mark Venethrax is much stronger into Hordes
than Warmachine, especially when I have 4 Empowers
to get round his Feat. I won first turn and got moving.
The
things I was most excited about in this match-up were the upkeeps I had at my
disposal. Fire for Effect was cast
onto Discordia, which, along with a reposition from Speed of Death made it a super-mobile fully boosted 10” spray. To
back this up, Bullet Dodger Imperatus
could walk up the table at Def15, making life very difficult. These 2 spells
cast, the rest of my forces run up the table, with Caine in a position to
threaten next turn.
Mark puts
up Lamentation to increase the cost
of my upkeeps (I was unlikely to be casting many spells) and moves his forces
up, flanking with the Raptors on the left and Blackfrost Shard on the right,
with the Warbeast loadout moving through the middle.
I upkeep
both spells, and consider my options. I start by trying to use Caine’s feat to
remove the Hellmouth, but soon realise that this is a terrible idea, and Gatecrash to safety instead. Discordia
moves up and sprays through, inflicting both the Seraph and Venethrax with Brain Damage before moving back to
safety. The Battle Mages pull in Typhon for Imperatus to kill it, and the
Sentinels run through, killing 2 Hellmouth Tentacles on the way. A strong turn
putting me in a strong attrition position.
With both
caster and Seraph unable to cast spells Mark has no way to Slipstream the Carnivean around the forest, leaving him unable to
charge into Imperatus. Instead he concentrates on the Sentinels, killing 9 out
of the unit by the time the turn is over. He also scores 2 points to my 1,
taking an early scenario lead.
I need to
clear out all of the centre and right this turn, and claw back the scenario
scoring. Caine and Discordia take care of the Shard and Spell Martyr on the
right, allowing Elara to run through and score the far flag. Vengeance moves finish off the Seraph,
before the remaining Sentinels charge into the Carnivean, doing reasonable
damage. Imperatus charges in and kills the Naga, Hellmouth and finishes off the
Carnivean to clear the central zone. I had moved a couple of Battle Mages out
of it though, preventing me from scoring, but I do score both flags and my zone
to move to a 4-2 lead.
Mark realises
that the game has got away from him and so simply tries to score some points.
He casts Mortality on Imperatus,
before charging Venethrax in, dealing a big chunk of damage. The Forsaken
charges in as well but can’t quite get the job done, and leaves me on a few
boxes. Similarly, the Raptors can’t quite finish off the Sentinels, leaving one
alive, but killing Lanyssa off my flag. We both score our zones to move to 5-3.
With only
2 points needed to win on scenario and his caster on 0 focus, winning the game
is pretty trivial, and I clear up the rest of his force, gaining both a 9-3
scenario, and assassination win.
VICTORY
I have
been hoping to feature Mark on this blog for a while as his army is beautiful.
Unfortunately for him this wasn’t much of a game as the buffs Caine gave my
force were just inredible. Had I used my feat properly it would have been even
more one sided, but that’s just inexperience with the caster. 4 unbeaten
players left, with Cephalyx, Khador and Grymkin.
Game 3: The Witch Coven of Garlghast vs Jonny Jennings
His List:
Rhyas, Sigil of Everblight
-Marauder
-Marauder
-Juggernaut
Winter
Guard Gun Carriage
Greylord
Forge Seer
-Behemoth
Greylord
Forge Seer
Kovnik
Jozef Grigorovich
Kayazy
Eliminators
Min
Winter Guard Rifle Corps
-Rocketeer
-Rocketeer
-Rocketeer
Round 3
and I am randomly selected Sturm & Drang. I had a look at their card, and
decided that whilst they seemed pretty good, I didn’t want to have to work out
how their toolkit works mid game. In addition, only one of my possible 3
opponents was using Hordes (casters were announced before opponents) so I
decided to reroll, and luck was on my side as I drew Coven. Jonny had used his
reroll previously and so was stuck with Rhyas. He won first turn and we got
moving.
After
this picture I remembered to actually deploy the witches. Coven is complicated.
Jonny
runs everything up, and puts Occultation on
the Battle Engine and Rapport on the
Juggernaut. He must have allocated something as well as he ended the turn
camping zero. Rhyas charged up the table, standing the Gun Carriage in front of
her. The rest of his forces move up the table.
With his
caster on 0 I realised I could get a bottom of 1 assassination. I moved up all
my army on the right, whilst considering whether to go for it or not, before
going all in. Infernal Machine was
cast on Hemera, before she ran up into position for Arc Noding. The second with
move up to create the Perfect Conjunction
triangle, before the third advances, Feats in case things go South, and
casts 2 fully boosted Stygian Abysses into
Rhyas. Needing 7s to hit and a total of 20 on the 6 damage dice. The dice go my
way and Rhyas is killed.
VICTORY
Coven
really are bonkers. Whilst you could say that Jonny made a mistake by hiding
behind a Stealthed Battle Engine, he
was also caught out by something that Coven wouldn’t usually be able to do. In
a standard Cryx list there wouldn’t be enough Focus to cast Infernal Machine (2) and 2 boosted Stygian Abysses (4 each) but the Empowered Arc Node on Hemera reduces the
Infernal Machine to cost 1, opening
up the assassination run. I felt a little bad, but I had no real idea how to
deal with the threat of his Battle Engine, so decided to go for it. Then Jonny
and I went for ice cream.
Game 4: Father Lucant, The Divinty Architect vs Chris Young
His List:
Tyrant Xerxis
-Cage
Rager
-Skin
& Moans
-Rattler
-Crabbit
-Crabbit
Death
Knell
Lord
Longfellow
Max Dread
Rots
Max
Piggybacks
Twighlight
Sisters
Mad Caps
Mad Caps
Final round of the event saw me
draw another strong caster, but one that I have absolutely no idea how to use,
in Father Lucant. Chris is using Grymkin led by Xerxis, and I am feeling fairly
confident in the matchup. Chris wins the roll to go first, but the set up of
the table makes it an extremely difficult choice. He eventually decides to go
second, choosing the table side with the better defensive pieces. So I go
first.
I cast Watcher on Lucant but inexperience in the spell means that neither
warjack is really close enough to take advantage of it (I drop the spell in a
couple of rounds and it is never relevant). The rest of my forces run up, ready
to face the Grymkin forces.
Chris puts out Defender’s Ward on the Skin & Moans, and Tactical Supremacy onto the Piggybacks. Hs forces then run up, with
the Pigs in Shield Wall, and the Mad
Caps each putting out 2 Cask Imps ready to wreak havoc next turn.
With the Grymkin forces mostly out
of threat range this turn, I decide to take whatever models were available and
then go from there. Discordia moves up and sprays off the right Mad Cap, which
in return explodes, dealing some damage to the shields. On the left the Battle
Mages remove the spawned Imps, and a single Dreadrot, before Imperatus attempts
to shoot off the Mad Cap, but sadly misses. I miscalculate the threat range of
the Dreadrots, forgetting about Push to
the Limit, and have to scramble to remove the ones in threat range of
Imperatus, but Hemera is able to kill of knock down the dangers.
Chris continues his advance, and
contests my zone with one of the Mad Cap Grunts from the destroyed unit,
allowing him to take a 1-0 lead on scenario. More Imps are spawned on the left
and the one on the right makes it into Discordia, dealing some further damage.
The rest of his forces move up into my threat ranges and challenge me to clear
them off.
After Hemera shooting and Repositioning
to become a useful Arc Node, I start my turn by Feating with Lucant,
increasing my armour, in case any of the ways Grymkin can hurt me in my own
turn (Mad Caps, Countercharges,
anything else that I have forgotten) come up, before casting Discontinuity and Positive Charge on Imperatus and Discordia. Discordia remembers
that she is not just a Spraybot and gets involved with the Piggybacks, killing
2 and knocking down a third. The Battle Mages clear out Imperatus’ charge lane
before he goes into the objective, side stepping around to the Skin &
Moans. I miss the first attack but hit the second, stripping Defender’s Ward. I start to charge in
with the Sentinels but unfortunately at this point a number of rules issues comes
to a point and cause the game to break down, leading to Chris’ concession of
the game.
It is
unfortunate how this event ended, as the game was really nicely poised, but
ending the game at this point was probably the best option. Chris is a good
friend and I am extremely sorry for the part I played in this game falling
apart. Whilst Chris conceded the game I certainly don’t consider myself to have
“won” it, and with Chris and I taking 1st and 2nd in the
event I very much consider us to be joint at the top,
The
unfortunate ending aside I cannot recommend Who’s the Boss more. It was a great
fun event and whilst some people were initially disappointed with some of the
casters they were given, almost everybody liked something that their caster
could do for their faction. Many thanks to Adam for arranging it as there is a
lot of work involved, and for a first event it was an impressive undertaking.
I’m not going to pretend that Retribution aren’t incredibly strong in the
format, and that as a faction we need to work on recruiting Caine2, even if we
need to glue some pointy ears on him.
Normal
service will resume now, with Blood and Oil on the horizon, but I hope you
enjoyed the write up for this event.
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