Had another tournament last weekend. Honestly, I went in with low expectations, partly because Skarre 3 has been taking some punches lately and also because some pretty great players would be there, but in the end I can say I’m very happy with how I did.
My lists are still the same as last time.
Round 1
Skarre 1 vs Madrak 1 (/Doomshaper 2)
Bunkers
I can’t remember what the last 2 points were. So, I know Skarre 3 has good game into Madrak, but I’m less confident about the Doomshaper game. Skarre 1 with Stalkers always makes Trollblood players nervous, so it can’t be bad, and I need to play the list anyway to see how it goes. I’m bit nervous about his Elder making the Wraith Engines easy prey though.
I get first turn, which is of course huge. Darragh makes the Banes faster. Wraith Engines go as far as they can. Stalkers just need to stay 13″ away from Fenblades.
My opponent ends up just running forward, which is of course a mistake. Fennblades get Hero’s Tragedy though.
I don’t have enough focus to allocate all the Stalkers and still cast Dark Guidance, because I rolled a 1 for Ritual Sacrifice. So I fill up 3 and 1 Stalker in the middle remains with just his Power Up. I can’t get to my left Wraith Engine with the feat, so he just scoots closer to the Fennblades. He has nothing to worry about, because the Stalker on that side makes it to the Elder and takes it out, as well as 2 Champions. For the rest I also have an amazing turn where I take it his whole unit of Champions and the (feated) Wraith Engine finishes off Skaldi, turning him into a Machine Wraith. The middle Stalker (with 1 focus) took out the Champion Hero first, because Stalkers don’t like weapon master retaliatory strikes. I stupidly charged 2 Knights on the Fennblade close to the Wraith Engine because I want a Machine Wraith, but forgot about Vengeance. I should’ve used Serpent’s Coil this turn but forgot.
The Fennblades fail to do anything besides killing a single Bane Knight, courtesy of Darragh having Mortal Fear up. My opponent gets so desperate to at least kill some Stalkers that he even commits the Chronicler and thus forgoes Hero’s Tragedy. Next turn I basically mop up and my opponent’s only out is a desperate assassination on Skarre camping 0. The Bomber can’t draw line of sight, but there are 2 Bane Knights in Ricochet range, because I forgot to Reposition. However, they are in a forest and Madrak has no outs for Stealth so my opponent concedes.
Round 2
Skarre 1 vs Sorscha 1 (/Butcher 3)
Spread the Net
Skarre 3 should be playable into Sorscha, but I don’t like my chances into Butcher with his 5 Devestators. On the other hand, it’s unlikely he will drop it for fear of Banes, but there’s no need to take the risk as the battle engines should have game into Sorscha as well.
My opponent elects to go first and the table is actually perfect for me to counter his feat; there’s a large forest in the middle and 2 more on the sides more near to my table edge, that I can extend with my theme clouds.
Contrary to what I normally do, I put the Wraith Engines near the middle and the Knights on the flanks, so I can go wide and use the forests for cover from the feat. He has the Adjunct, so I’m careful not to get into (Boundless) charge range of his heavies. I try to give him something, to bait a feat, but am careful to not have Skarre “accidentally” die. So I place some Bane Knights in the forest and of the other unit, 2 in clear line of sight, without terrain.
He doesn’t take the feat bait, but does pop out from behind the forest to Freezing Grip the Knights I left hanging in the wind, then Windrushes back with his back against the house at the edge of the zone. One Gun Carriage gets Guidance and charges a Wraith Engine, taking the Stalker next to it with it (had to give him something) Wraith Engine doesn’t die, as expected. Other Gun Carriage tries a fancy move, needing to impact 3 times to kill 4 Knights, but one of them doesn’t die which makes for a sad battle engine stranded away from his charge target.
My opponent was careful not to give the Wraith Engines line of sight to Sorscha and to be out of range of my Stalkers. Unlucky for him, I could draw line of sight to something next to Sorscha, so I feat on the Wraith Engines and cast Dark Guidance, also making sure I take both Gun Carriages this turn, and Skarre doesn’t die, just in case. I need 11s to hit Sorscha with a total of 4 attacks. The first hit leaves her on 2 boxes (she was camping 0), I score another hit and put her down. Worst case, the Machine Wraith that was formerly a Winter Guard could’ve possessed Beast-09 to attack her again in the back.
It was a bit lucky that I got this out, but my contingency plan was pretty solid, so I’m happy with how I played this game.
Round 3
Skarre 1 vs Garryth 2 (/Goreshade 4)
King of the Hill
I’ve played this particular person a couple of times before and dropped Skarre 3 every time. While that is a playable matchup, it’s an uphill battle and last time I got thoroughly clobbered (because I played like an asshat), so I wanted to see what Skarre 1 would bring me in this game. Besides that, this scenario is difficult for Skarre 3 as it’s almost impossible to take both zones simultaneously with only her and the Kraken, whereas Skarre 1 has a much easier time with her battle engines and Stalkers. My opponent was extremely surprised and a bit confused at my pick.
I lost the rolloff, but by going second I could again have a beautiful table setup. Again a large forest in the middle, a huge cloud off to my left, with a trench behind it, which I blocked off with a theme cloud and a big forest to my right.
I keep Stalkers outside of 12 of the Tridents, but move the Wraith Engines aggressively, outside of 14″ of Garryth. He has some magical weapons, but outside Garryth, nothing that really threatens a Wraith Engine. The game came down to my opponent forgetting to move a Trident, which meant my feated Wraith Engine with the Treasure Chest rerolls could kill it, basically rendering that side my playground (Garryth was slanted to the other flank. I also cleared the other zone of the contesting Harpy and objective, so scored 3-0 that turn.
Eventually, he attempts a desperate assassination on Skarre in a trench behind a cloud camping 2, but only on 8 boxes. It doesn’t work out and I mop up.
All of the Stealth, Prowl combined with concealment terrain, and Incorporeal Wraith Engines made me able to effectively ignore his feat (I lost 2 Knights or something) while still getting a lot of work done, so provided terrain is on my side, I’m liking the way this matchup panned out.
Round 4
Skarre 3 vs Wanderer (/Dreamer)
Invasion
I contemplated both lists and saw potential in each of them for both matchups.
Skarre 1 ignores half the rules of the Wanderer list and he doesn’t have any outs against Incorporeal, while it hits hard enough to give Dreamer pause, though there is always Enfeeble.
On the other hand, Skarre 3 has some solid shooting available as well as fire immunity against Wanderer, while she can often overcome Dreamer through sheer weight of numbers and/or the Kraken.
The terrain is a bit of a dud except a building in the middle of the table.
The game itself wasn’t actually that special. I constantly forgot to give Guidance to Skarre before activating her (Fog of War) so I couldn’t effectively kill the Clockatrice that was taunting me from the other side of the zone. The Neighslayers stayed out of range for a long time while using Feign Death, until they committed and died (Gerlak killed 4 under Star Crossed and Annoyance, so proud of him). I managed to kill the Dug-In Grave Ghoul with an aiming Kraken through Veil of Mists (didn’t forget Guidance). The Mad Caps did literally nothing; they either only had fire immune Bloodgorgers in front of them, they blew up, or they were engaged by said Bloodgorgers.
I committed the Kraken on a Clockatrice which I shouldn’t have, which cost me the Kraken, and the game, for free.
In the end I just clocked myself, which was a bit silly, but it was the first time I played this game and the list is literally made to make you waste clock time, with Star Crossed, Countercharge, Time Stutter, Veil of Mists, Fog of War, Road Markers, Mad Caps, Grave Ghoul rerolls and Arcana; there is just too much to think about. The game felt good though, I had options for everything and if I hadn’t lost my Kraken (or clocked myself), it would’ve probably gone to turn 7.
Summary
All in all, I’m very happy with how this all went down. There was some strong opposition and I felt unsure about both round 2 and 3 before I played it, so I didn’t expect to actually make it to the finals.
It’s no shame to then lose those finals and it was a great game where lots of fun was had. Ended up placing second and scored my third Bane Knight Officer as a reward.
I did kind of get lucky dodging the 3 Skorne players, though I do have a game. There was no Circle present and I dodged Harbinger as well, whom is still my nemesis, but I at least have some game into.
The organisation and catering were also top-notch and all contributed to a feeling of content at the end of the day.
Smeerlapperij 