Paris Masters

Introduction

The Paris Masters were last weekend and I jumped at the opportunity to pump out a bunch of games (6) over the weekend. The event required fully painted lists, so I took my WTC lists for one last spin before they will retire, at least for a while. Gotta move on and try out that jank.

The event itself was held in the Waagh Tavern where we had booked a room at a nearby hotel. The venue was quite nice and lunch was included, with drinks available throughout the day.

Lists and reports are mostly from memory and there are no pictures as timing was very tight and I didn’t take any notes besides the basics in the Iron Grudge app. I’m 99% sure of the lists I played against, but don’t remember the specifics of each pairing.

My lists, for posterity:

[Theme] Dark Host
[Skarre 1] Pirate Queen Skarre [+28]
– Stalker [8]
– Stalker [8]
– Stalker [8]
– Stalker [8]
Bane Lord Tartarus [0(6)]
Darragh Wrathe [9]
Scrap Thrall (3) [2]
Bane Knights (max) [15]
– Bane Knight Officer [0(4)]
Bane Knights (max) [15]
– Bane Knight Officer [0(4)]
Wraith Engine [15]
Wraith Engine [15]

[Theme] Scourge of the Broken Coast
[Skarre 3] Skarre, Admiral of the Black Fleet [+27]
– Kraken [35]
– Satyxis Blood Priestess [4]
Axiara Wraithblade [0(6)]
General Gerlak Slaughterborn [0(6)]
Misery Cage [2]
Ragman [4]
Warwitch Siren [4]
Black Ogrun Ironmongers [6]
Blighted Trollkin Marauders (max) [15]
Bloodgorgers (max) [15]
– Jussika Bloodtongue [5]
Satyxis Blood Witches (min) [8]
– Satyxis Blood Hag [4]
Scharde Dirge Seers [0(6)]

Round 1

Skarre 3 vs Syvestro MO (/no pair)
Bunkers

The first round paired me against a relatively new player, he told me it was his first tournament. As a result he had only brought 1 list. But it’s not like Crucible Guard ever drops anything besides Syvestro anyway, so that hardly mattered. I dropped my classic Skarre 3, because it has the tools required to survive the grind. I’m a bit worried about the Rocketmen though, as their defense will be through the roof and on this scenario, I will need every point I can get.

My opponent wins the rolloff and elects to go first, using Super Fuel, but then oddly not being as aggressive as he could’ve been, preferring to take some (inconsequential) pot shots with the 2 Railless Engines rather than moving up menacingly as far as possible. The rest of the army sort of matches the speed.
I respond by putting Draconic Blessing on the Bloodgorgers in the middle (I always do that, but it’s extra relevant this game), then casting Dash and Deceleration and going as far as I possibly can, keeping my flanks relatively safe from Hutchuk (Siren was out of range and the Marauders were partly facing the edge). The couple of casualties that I suffered just Reinforced back.

Hutchuk ambushes but is forced to just run to the Siren. One of the battle engines on that flank gets closer and takes some more pot shots. He repositions closer to the flag, which I think is a terrible idea, because that makes it easy pickings for my Kraken. Last turn the Rocketmen used Evasive Manoeuvres, to very little effect because I couldn’t get to them, so now they used Strafing Run instead to reposition more towards the middle, they keep Transmutation for now. Some more pot shots get taken and I lose some trolls. Most of the jacks are positioned centrally. The Steelheads that were on the same flank as the flag-contesting Railless move forward, but not close enough.
So I counter ambush and my Blood Witches take out the Trancer and Hutchuk on that flank. The Siren charges the Railless, ending B2B with the flag, which triggers Gang Fighter, which lets the Kraken wreck it and take his Kill Shot at some nearby Steelheads. Gerlak moves up to project Veteran Leader. Bloodgorgers gain Reposition from Axiara and take out a couple of Rocketmen and the 1 Steelhead contesting the left flag. 1 Bloodgorger manages to Reposition into my opponent’s zone and he forgets to Counter Charge. Ragman projects some Dark Shroud which lets the Marauders badly damage the Retaliator, though its cortex is intact and Widget is just going to go repair it. Skarre had put up Guided Fire to be able to kill some things and enable the Kraken’s Kill Shot, Dash so I could go contest and Deceleration by taking a corpse from the Misery Cage. Score goes to 2-0.

The game is now basically over as my opponent just spends all of his time during this turn (his 3). He kills some things, but at the end of the turn, the score is 2-1 because he cleared his zone, but he only has 3 seconds left.
On my turn I mop up and score 6-1 on the left flag, middle flag, my zone and the objective; the right flag was impossible to clear and I needed Skarre’s shooting to kill the objective, while the Bloodgorgers and Kraken took care of the rest.

This game basically comes down to my opponent’s inexperience; he was not aggressive enough at the start and then too aggressive at bad times. He also spent a lot of time thinking and looking up his own rules.
I tried to give him some pointers after the game and I hope he did better the rest of the weekend.

Round 2

Skarre 3 vs Goreshade 4 SotR (/Elara)
Anarchy

I had honestly glanced over the fact that Lord Ghyrrshyld was playing in Shadows and thus had lots of blessed shooting and Takedown. I was quite sure he was never going to drop Elara into me, as it was more of a gimmicky assassination list that was never going to work. So I dropped Skarre 3 because I knew it can handle the Goreshade 4 grind, though I got a bit more worried when I remembered what Mage Hunters actually do, nevertheless I should still be able to handle it as I can largely ignore his feat with the amount of shooting I have available.

My opponent wins the roll, after rerolling a tied 2 with his theme bonus, but lets me go first. I hand out Draconic Blessing to the Bloodgorgers in the middle, as per usual. The Marauders are on my left, the Kraken and Siren on the right; I’m counting on ambushing there anyway.
I put up Dash and Deceleration and go forward as far as I can, then I realize that all the shooting is Blessed apart from the ‘jacks, so I resign from casting it again for the rest of the game.
He has his min unit of Infiltrators coming around the obstruction on my left side of the table, Mage Hunters in the middle, and the big unit of Infiltrators with Elara on the other side. Light jacks strewn all around.

In the first turn not much actively happens, except that we both go as far as we feel comfortable doing. In my second turn, I just take some pot shots, killing some Mage Hunters. Next my opponent shoots a bit, killing a couple of Bloodgorgers, among which was Jussika, and jams me, then feats. The larger unit of Infiltrators had Dauntless Resolve the whole game, but he never succeeded at a single Tough roll.

One Marauder, the Kraken and Skarre get Guidance from the Dirge Seers and I start shooting after putting up Guided Fire, setting a couple of Infiltrators on fire and clearing large swaths of models. I used the Kraken to kill some Inflitrators in melee, hoping I could catch Eiryss with blast damage with the Kill Shot (I couldn’t shoot her directly because of a nearby Spear of Scyrah), but she survives. 2 Bloodgorgers end up stationary because I wanted to kill some front models and I needed to have some blocking bodies anyway. Most of the left Infiltrators are dead at this point. I ambushed on my right this turn so I could score that zone after the Kraken cleared it of contesters.

My opponent has a lot of focus on Goreshade at this point and I’m worried that he might try to assassinate me, even though there are plenty of bodies around me to block the ranged attacks. He eventually doesn’t and instead kills my Kraken with his light jacks and the Spears.
Now that I’ve managed to get past his feat, it’s go time. I can charge Gerlak into a Mage Hunter and start a chain, so I’m quite confident that my opponent will use Mad Visions to stop me. That’s fine by me as that means he can just provide Veteran Leader to my other trolls. And so it shall be, Gerlak gets stopped, but the remaining Bloodgorgers clean up all the Mage Hunters and Infiltrators. The Marauders further clear the left zone, leaving my opponent less then a handful of models which will just run to contest for the rest of the game. Some Bloodgorgers and Iron Mongers, with the help of the Blood Witches takes out the light jacks that took out the Kraken.

The rest of the game is pretty much a cat-and-mouse between Elara and whatever I send to the right zone. I can’t quite get rid of her because of the rough terrain and DEF 15 is quite hard to deal with in the first place. I completely collapse my opponent’s left (for me) flank and start scoring more and more, but he manages to keep up. One of the most notable things that happened is that he eventually Revived a Spear into that zone and then put a cloud on top of it, with Gerlak then missing the 4 he needed to hit in the back (he could get out of the cloud). So the game was probably going to go to turn 7, with me staying slightly ahead on scenario and eventually winning.
I start my turn 5 (I think?) at 6.5 minutes and then I somehow zoned out while decimating the opposing elves. I hear a clock running down, but figure it’s at another table, until my opponent points out that I just clocked myself… Well then, I only have myself to blame for that one. I think at that point my opponent had Elara, Goreshade, a single mechanic, 2-3 Soulless Escorts and 2 Spears of Scyrah left, while I still had all my units apart from the Blood Witches in some capacity, so I’m anything but pleased with myself at this point.

Round 3

Skarre 1 vs Deneghra 1 SotBC (/Goreshade 3 DH)
King of the Hill

I knew my Skarre 1 would wipe the floor with his Goreshade, because of the RFP, and I knew Deneghra would be a pain for Skarre 3, while Skarre 1 could easily fix any issues just by casting Dark Guidance. In addition, my Skarre 1 list really, really, really likes playing King of the Hill, so we get the expected matchup.

I lost the roll, but still get to deploy first, as my opponent would like the side with the obstruction to hide Deneghra behind. I deploy in the classic symmetry (Skarre with Knights and Wraith Engine to each side). He has his Smog Belchers, backed by Axiara and the Dirge Seers, on my right flank, Raiders backed by Marauders on my left, with the rest of his models in the middle and Blood Witches in Ambush. I move up as far as I possibly can, leaving the Stalker on my far right hiding behind a wall, so the Smog Belchers can’t hit it and my opponent’s Stalker doesn’t have a landing spot. My other Stalkers stay in safe spots and the Wraith Engines take care they can’t get charged by more than 1-2 models.
My opponent is not aggressive at all, only moving up the Raiders any kind of distance and taking pot shots with the Smog Belchers (a deviating blast deals a couple of points to the Stalker behind the wall) and then repositioning behind their clouds.

I leave my two outer Stalkers in their respective zones, turning towards the flank so they don’t get instantly taken out by the ambush. The Wraith Engines again position so they don’t die, seeing as I don’t want to feat yet. The Bane Knights advance aggressively and the unit facing off with the Raiders uses their mini-feat, so the horny ladies with whips would be somewhat deterred.

The ambush happens on my right and my opponent spikes a bit, so the Stalker dies quickly, though my objective survives. Some Knights die, but importantly, the one Raider that came to contest my left zone did so by running out of formation. The Marauders do nothing of note as they are blocked by the Satyxis and Axiara is off on the other side of the table.
Now I do feat. My Knights kill a lot of the Satyxis, though not the Sea Witch as I don’t want to have to kill the lady on the far side as well. I take a big chunk out of the arc node, which is eventually taken out by a Stalker. The objective dies to my Wraith Engine, I clear the middle zone and have Darragh score the flag. If absolutely everything goes right, I can clear the right zone, by that I mean that the Stalker needs to kill 3 Witches, the Wraith Engine 3 more and the created Machine Wraith the last one. It doesn’t happen, so I “only” score 4-0, with the middle zone being lined by the remaining Bane Knights with Defensive Strike up. Both opposing Stalkers and 1 of the Deathrippers are dead. There is only 1 problem: in my hubris, I put Skarre into the forest on my side of the middle zone, thinking it would be ok to be there, in concealment rather than behind it. At that moment I thought I needed her to score, but I still had Knights that ended up not doing much.

So, my opponent starts to proxy a run with his last remaining arc node. If he runs it the full distance, he can get to exactly (to 0,01 mm) of Skarre, while avoiding the forest and barely drawing LoS. So he runs there, feats and casts a Crippling Grasp, rolling the required boosted 9. Severa also receives Ghost Walk, so she can walk past my Knights. Severa and 2 of the Gunslingers receive Guidance.
One of the Gunslingers falls to a free strike from the Stalker, another to a Defensive Strike. The third, without Eyeless Sight can walk into range because the 2 Knights in front of her have already died, she rolls the unboosted 7 twice and spikes high on the Heartseeker attacks, two-shotting Skarre’s remaining 8 hit points at dice -6. Oh well, I guess Severa would’ve finished me off anyway.

This was still a frustrating loss, as again it was completely my own fault for being there, even though dice also kind of happened. My opponent wasn’t doing a great job at using his army effectively, as the Marauders hardly did anything, while the Smog Belchers did nothing but take ineffective pot shots at an all-but-immune Wraith Engine and a Stalker. I was way ahead on scenario and my opponent’s only out was a dicey assassination. Instead of safely cowering behind my forest, I gave him the opening he needed.
Another game I basically gave away, needless to say I was feeling even less pleased with myself, though the game itself was pleasant and enjoyable.

Note to my opponent: If you read this, I saw that you thanked me and that I know why, but I haven’t the faintest clue 😉

Round 4

Skarre 3 vs Calandra SotN (/Grim 1 KC)
Spread the Net

I hem and haw a bit about what I want to drop her. I know Skarre 1 would destroy Kalandra, while Skarre 3 would be a bit more difficult, but I’ve seen Grim 1 perform against Skarre 1 and it’s not pretty, especially on a live scenario like Spread the Net. As such I decide to drop Skarre 3 and assume to see Grim 1. To my surprise, Calandra shows up instead! I actually don’t remember the last time I saw her on the table, so the matchup is a bit of a mystery to me, but I don’t really see how he can effectively chew through everything as this isn’t Band of Heroes, but Star Crossed Champions will definitely be annoying.

I lose the toss, again, and my opponent elects to go first. I use the opportunity to give him the side with an obnoxiously big obstruction in his rectangular zone. With any luck this will herd his models to the flank, where they will be easy pickings for my Blood Witches.

My opponent moves forward aggressively, some would say too aggressively. As a result, Skarre can personally shoot down 2 Fire Eaters, though one was in cover. Everything else runs forward after I put up Draconic Blessing on the Marauders and cast Dash. Deceleration was substituted for boosting rolls at the Fire Eaters as my opponent’s shooting was non-existent.
My Kraken is also toeing my own zone.

My opponent does the smart thing and runs his min unit of Champions around the inner side of the obstruction. He doesn’t put his Mauler in the zone though, so I don’t need to contest on my turn. The remaining Fire Eater does very little and the Earthborn, gaining +2 SPD and ARM from the nearby rubble and obstacle, runs forward aggressively, also under Bullet Dodger. The max unit of Champions moves forward aggressively, but not into my zone. I think he also has nothing on his flag at this point.
He had ambushed his bears on the right, but as there was nothing in range, he had run 1 of them to engage the Kraken and Warwitch Siren from behind, while the others were further back, waiting for their turn.

My Marauders, with Draconic Blessing, take some combined shots at the min unit of Champions, taking out 1 and setting the other 2 on fire on 1 box. The shots were effective RAT 8 vs DEF 12, which is good, considering Star Crossed.
I had allocated 2 to the Kraken, cast Guided Fire and use Skarre to kill Boomhowler, who ran into my face with Cacaphony (I had to move back a little) I cycle Draconic Blessing to the Bloodgorgers who charge the Earthborn and also go to keep the other champions busy. They of course promptly miss the Earthborn, who dodges out of the way. The Siren walks around the jamming bear with Parry, taking care to still engage it and tries to hit his buddy for Shadow Bind, though she misses. The Kraken wheels around, eats the bear and Kill Shots the Handler, who Toughs. Ragman finishes off the troll.
I score my own flag with the Blood Priestess, as there is barely any opposing shooting anyway. The Dirge Seers have taken up spots in front of Skarre, with Summon Vortex up, just in case. Skarre is not camping anything, but I feel pretty good about staring down the Earthborn.

So, it just so happens that my opponent again feels like he can’t do much and assassination is his only out. Nonetheless, I feel confident about surviving the assassination run as the Earthborn is jammed by 4 Bloodgorgers and a Marauder, though he’s immune to fire and thus Ashen Veil, Skarre is at full health and protected by a zone of -2 attack.

Both Champions survive the burning and go kill the 1 Bloodgorger engaging the Earthborn Dire Troll. Calandra then receive a talisman from he pigs and gets to work: she feats and casts 3 Befuddles, rerolling 1 with a fury, to move 3 Bloodgorgers out of the way. The Earthborn gets Rage from the Mauler who now also goes to score the zone. Valka goes to control the flag and the Champions play a bit with the other trolls in front of them. The remaining bear fails to do anything of note.
Now, here it comes. The Dire Troll tramples past the remaining Marauder, barely taking any damage from the free strike, it tramples the 2 Dirge Seers, missing both, they dodge to more obnoxious positions, but the final position of the fullblood troll is already next to my boat. He needs 8s to hit and is at dice -1 for damage, needing to deal a total of 26 damage with a maximum of 3 unboosted attacks.
He misses the first, but there’s a 1, so he gets a reroll from the feat, which makes it a hit. He then rolls a 9 for damage, auch. His second attack simply hits, but he rolls a 3 for damage, rerolling gets him a 10 though. I’ve already taken 17 damage; I’m on 9 boxes… The second attack just straight up hits again, he rolls damage and rolls… a 9! At first my brain correlates the dice to dealing my final 9 boxes and losing me the game and my heart sinks, then I count again and realise it’s at dice -1, which means I’m on 1 box! Brown pants averted!
My opponent scores 2 and is contesting. 2-2.

I need to get out of here! I keep all of my focus and have Axiara grant Reposition to Skarre before she charges the Earthborn. The plan is to Ram him to the ground and then move out of the way, then encircle it with models. Axiara’s sword deals quite a bit of damage and her horns even crit! One Iron Monger repairs the boat, while the leader curses the big unit of Champions. Then Skarre, no longer needing to knock down the big brute by herself just heals 7, takes 1 to camp from the Misery Cage and runs all the way to my left flank.
My Blood Witches ambush on the right and go in to play with the Champions, taking out a few, tagging a couple of others with Grievous Wounds and Side Stepping to Gang Fighter positions. 1 of them ran to Valka as I remembered the Counter Charge threat just in time. I use 1 more Bloodgorger to trigger Gang Fighter on the last one, while his buddies go play with the Dire Trolls. The Marauders finish off the 2 Champions, and Gerlak also takes a chunk out of the Earthborn. The Kraken uses his corpse for a focus and got Empowered by the Siren, then proceeds to eat all of the remaining Champions. The Marauders also charge into the trolls. I score 2 and go 4-2.

My opponent wants to try to spell assassinate Skarre again, but I point out that she’s at 11 hp and camping 1, so the lets go of the idea. He doesn’t have a lot left and so just kills some of my Blighted Trollkin and Blood Witches, enabling him to score 1, but he’s not contesting and we go to 6-3.

In theory I just have to pass the clock and I will automatically win on scenario as long as I make sure to contest. In practice, I can walk the Kraken to the Earthborn that scared me so much, so it’s a matter of honor! The Earthborn gets Cursed, Ragman puts up Death Field, the Kraken converts his corpses into focus, as he was out of control range, and walks over to the big oaf to kill it. His buddy, the Mauler, fares better though, as I can’t get off a lot of charges and Star Crossed is still bugging me. He stays at 1 hp, so it looks like I will end the turn 7-3. The game is effectively over though, as my opponent has no clock, nor models left.

I do however, have 1 more way of killing the Mauler, so I casually walk over a Dirge Seer who pricks him with her finger and he drops dead. Skarre then just flies over to the zone and I score 8-3 after all.

I almost lost this game, that was in the bag, again, the difference being that now I saw the possibility coming, but felt confident that it wasn’t going to happen, then dice almost made it happen anyway.
I asked my opponent why he didn’t just drop Grim 1 and he said that he actually couldn’t, as he was missing a unit for the list, so my worries were for nothing.

Interlude

Round 4 was the last one of the day and we decided to head out for dinner. My girlfriend had already scouted the perfect restaurant before, where we had great steak, followed by unlimited chocolate mousse! An all around good time was had by our whole party.

After some more Warmachine talk, we headed off to bed to so we would manage to be quasi-alert in the morning.

Round 5

Skarre 1 vs Rasheth TE (/Makeda 2 MoW)
Recon II

I’m not liking my chances of Skarre 1 attritioning against 3 full units of Immortals. The problem is that I have even less confidence in the Skarre 3 vs Makeda matchup, because that list just ignores my attrition advantage with Side Stepping Takedown. So, the above is the matchup I get. There are no Supreme Guardians, in favor of sheer weight of bodies, which is actually better against my list, as Touch of the Grave is still a thing vs Recursion, there’s also Vengeance all around.

My opponent wins the roll and I get to go second. The table has a massive obstruction in the middle, a forest in the zone to my right and I put a cloud over the flag, and a building towards his side of the left zone.
The game itself was a predictable grind that I didn’t get to keep up with, so I will go over the highlights.

On his top of 2, 1 of my Stalkers dies and another loses movement and an arm. After that I feat and go to town, trying to get as far ahead on scenario as I can and not triggering too much Vengeance. On the left there is one of his Novitiates on the flag and a bunch of Immortals in the zone, some hiding behind the building. I try to make a play to clear the zone; my Wraith Engine needs to kill the Novitiate and 2 Immortals, of which 1 gets the plus 2 bonus against melee and Grave Mist, so I miss the 1 behind the building once and kill it after. After the Bane Knights clear most of the others, I just need the spawned Machine Wraith to hit the last Immortal in the back, so I need a 5 to hit and a 4 to kill due to Dark Shroud. I roll a 3 on damage… Darragh goes for a desperate Hellfire, but with needing a 10 to hit, he fails.
In the middle of the table, I had jumped the armless Stalker between his objective and the Void Archon and, with Skarre not camping, the Void Archon worries me. The bad arm deals 3 damage to the objective. The good arm hits the Archon for 10 damage, but he got 2 extra boxes in the CID, so I buy an attack, which misses and then drop it with my last attack. On the other side, I ignore the Immortals that still have a CA and instead focus on the other unit. My Wraith Engine and Bane Knights combined take out 6 or so and the Knights put up Serpent’s Coil to deter the Vengeance attacks. I manage to score the flag with Tartarus and the score goes to 1-0. I had hoped to score 3 points this turn because I know I can’t win the long game; the writing is already on the wall…

My opponent next spends some time contemplating running some Immortals through my Bane Knights by making them Incorporeal and assassinating Skarre, but he doesn’t like his chances as he will only get to arc 2 spells. Instead he goes for attrition. He feats and puts Blood Mark on my left Wraith Engine. He then proceeds to two-shot it with a boosted Spirit Eye from both Marketh and the Extoller Soulward, both at dice -4; he rolled triple 6 for 14 damage and then rolled another 16 to kill it. Well then…
My other Wraith Engine doesn’t die and the Knights on the right don’t get much use from their Defensive Strikes due to Spirit Walker making the Immortals Incorporeal. I lose a lot of Knights on both sides as well as my Stalkers.

The grind continues with me staying slightly ahead on scenario for a while, after my Knights kill the objective. It must be said that it took me 2 turns, with some Defensive Strikes thrown in my opponent’s turn as well, to kill a particular Ancestral Guardian that was bugging me in the left zone, which also denied me some much needed points.

Eventually, I own the left flank, but I barely have anything left to own it with as my other flank completely collapsed. My opponent doesn’t have too much left either, but it’s enough to start building a comfortable scenario lead. In desperation I eventually charge 2 Bane Knights into Rasheth, but one of them actually manages to miss, so I don’t even come close to killing him.

The game ends at 4-9.
I knew this was going to be an uphill battle from the start, but dice happening did put me on tilt a bit. It could’ve gone a lot better, putting me in a much more comfortable position scenario-wise. However, it was not meant to be and my opponent got a well deserved win.
Maybe I should’ve risked dropping Skarre 3, assuming that he probably wouldn’t drop Makeda anyway, seeing as I had shooting and a large volume of attacks available, but I’m not sure.

Round 6

Skarre 1 vs Gorten I (/Ossrum)
King of the Hill

The last game is against Mercenaries, again on King of the Hill, which already favors my Skarre 1 list tremendously, because it can go really wide. Ossrum didn’t bring much in the way of magical weapons, so I know Gorten is the likely pick. The latter though, also has trouble actually going wide, which is required for this scenario, and savvy use of my Wraith Engines, coupled with letting the Stalkers go wide, will severely blunt the impact of his feat. From the get-go I’m confident in this one.

My opponent wins the roll and lets me go first. I can understand the choice because he might be able to leverage his feat to score first. Either way suits me fine though, as I can either score first, and potentially finish the game, or I can claim more board space.

There’s on obstruction on the left edge of the circular zone and another nearer my opponent’s table side on the right. There’s rubble nearer my side in the round zone and other terrain is mostly irrelevant.
I deploy my Wraith Engines centrally, as they can’t be be pushed by the feat, which would allow the Bane Knights to go wide. I’m not too worried about anything and run up the Wraith Engines the full 15 with Death Ride, the Knights go as far as possible as well and the Stalkers just stay outside 12 and 11 of Eiryss and Kell Bailoch respectively.

My opponent puts Strength of Granite on one of the Drillers and goes as far as possible with everything, being careful not to lose Eiryss to Stalkers, but forgetting to activate Kell. I activate the Stalker that can get to him and eat the marksman. I jockey for position, just being careful that my Wraith Engines can stay outside 11, because of Hunter’s Mark, of all his heavies, which means all his heavy hitters. I have a Stalker that went very wide in the left zone, supported by a Wraith Engine and some Knights. The right zone only has a Stalker, but there’s not much opposing me there anyway. The Wraith Engine in the middle manages to sit just inside the circular zone, with some Knights strewn about as well. Darragh is within walking distance of the flag.

My opponent starts to formulate a plan involving Gorten charging 1 of the Bane Knights, so he can get a better feat, seeing as moving 4 and a 10″ control area doesn’t cover a lot of ground otherwise. For this he will need Hunter’s Mark and for that in turn he will need to move a Driller out of the way, which he then sadly ran into melee with said Bane Knight. The Hunter’s Mark misses and Gorten doesn’t exactly get a dream feat. Most of the Knights in the middle zone get pushed away, but both my Wraith Engines weren’t even in range. The rectangular zone on my left is contested by (his objective,) the Basher and a gun bunny. The round zone has 2 Drillers and some Kayazi around the edge. The Stalker that killed Kell Bailoch was scrapped in return and my opponent ran 2 Eliminators into the rectangular zone on the right. Since I only had a single Stalker there, he put them as far away from each other as possible, so I definitely couldn’t clear that zone in 1 go.

It’s definitely feat time and I’m able to almost fully fuel all Stalkers. I have 3 Knights in the center that can charge and between those, a feated Wraith Engine and some help from a Stalker, I get to kill both Drillers, which clears the flag for Darragh to score. He had to use Death Ride to get my Wraith Engine where I wanted it. This unit of Knights also puts up Defensive Strike.
The feated Wraith Engine on the left, supported by a bunch of Knights, of which 1 had been feated on, succeed at taking out the objective and both contesting jacks. The remaining Stalker is then free to go rough up the Driller a bit, because my opponent forgot to protect it with a Rock Wall.
The far right Stalker, who was barely in control, uses 4 dice to hit to get rid of one of the Eliminators. I end up scoring the flag, left zone and opposing objective, so score 3-0.

My opponent struggles a bit, by charging the middle Wraith Engine with his Assassins after landing Kiss of Lyliss. He tries to charge my middle Bane Knight Officer with his Eliminators, but out of 3 Defensive Strikes, one manages to hit, with the help of Tartarus urging them on, which puts a damper on his plans. The other girl instead decides to run to contest the zone on my left. Everything is contested, but I lost nothing of value except for the one Stalker that got scrapped by the Driller under Strength of Granite that had only lost the clamp.
The first attack takes out half the grid, including movement, which allows the crippled clamp to also hit and trigger Sustained Attack. This was hardly useful as that attack even managed to kill it completely. The Driller was slightly disappointed that it’s onslaught was over so soon.

I need to score 2 points to win, which just means that I need to kill 2 Eliminators. I allocate the far right Stalker 2 focus and grant it the Treasure Chest buff. I walk over to the side and cast Dark Guidance. The Stalker jumps towards the cowering female Kayazi and boosts its first attack, which misses. I reroll and miss again, needing a 10 on 4 dice, luckily the second (boosted) initial does manage to hit and the Eliminator was no more. Tartarus charges the other one in the back and, needing only a 7 on 3 dice, hits easily, which takes care of that. I score the 5-0 needed to win the game.

There’s not much else I can say about this game. My opponent did make some mistakes, but honestly nothing really mattered. This scenario was very bad for Gorten and great for my Skarre list. His army is slow, while mine is fast and there was never any way he would threaten me on scenario. Sorry Mercenary players, but there was no way I was going to lose this one.

Summary

I’m actually not very happy with how I did at this event; I snatched defeat from the jaws of victory twice and another, theoretically easy, game left my caster at 1 box and nearly gave me a heart attack. The Skorne game I might’ve won with my other list and/or by rolling better.
I suppose I could say I hadn’t slept very well both nights (not very fond of the bed at the hotel), but that’s really no excuse. I still went an ok 3-3, but I should’ve been able to end up 4-2 at least. Oh well, the games themselves were actually really great and enjoyable and I don’t blame my opponents for anything; they were all a pleasure to play against and I did manage to grind out 6 games in a few days, so not all was for naught.

I must say that I do think I played my Skarre 3 list to (almost) full capacity this time, so I would say I’m happy about that. Too bad I clocked myself in the Retribution game.

I’m not really sure when my next games will be, or even which casters I would play for them, but who knows, maybe I’ll write a post about the CID starting next week.