The event followed most of the rules laid out for the Wrath Release Event (pdf). Summary for the lazy,
The event: Players accumulated points for playing games against players and factions they haven't faced before, and for winning each game. Once per tournament they can score for a caster kill, scenario win, having a fully painted army, playing a tier list, playing five different casters over the course of the event, having your entire army on the other side of the board, clearing the enemies from your side of the board, playing a Wrath caster, bringing a fully modeled and painted trench to the event, bringing two character jacks, bringing only a battlegroup, and probably a few others. If a player plays five games, they can earn up to 34 points, I think.
The scenario: Each player was given a 5x8" command trench and ten standard trenches. For those unfamiliar with trench rules; they grant cover and immunity to blasts originating from outside of the trench to those completely within the walls. The command trench was place 4" up from the back edge of your deployment zone in the center. The remaining trenches were placed anywhere by the players, in alternating order. A player wins if they have more scoring models(as per standard rules) in the zone than their opponent. All games were played under this scenario.
Additionally, all games were to be atleast 35pts. With everything being what it was, I wasn't much interested in the event as practice for Socal Smackdown. Just a good chance to nab a faction coin and see some new stuff.
First thought, that's a hell of alot of blast damage negating, cover granting terrain. Second, there is no other terrain on the board. No forests to block LOS, no walls/linear obstacles to block most charges, absolutely nothing. In short, melee heaven. With this in mind, I took out the Errants from all of my list ideas(Still have nothing set for 35pts) and instead included Daughters of the Flame with the Piper as my infantry core. Third thought hit immediately after and prompted a question to our local Press Ganger, Anthony, "How many points do you need to win"? He explained just one was needed and I was baffled. Did they really overlook something so big? More on that in a bit.
First game was against another Menoth player. Seeing another Menoth player meant that I was going to have to try and win the faction coin, rather than just autowinning it. Beating him would give me a good head start with 3 event points to his 2, so I sent eFeora to it.
Feora, Protector of the Flame
- Redeemer (Bond)
- Repenter
- Reckoner
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts)
Daughters of the Flame (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Anastasia di Bray
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
The Covenant of Menoth
The Wrack (3 wracks)
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal of MenothI made the mistake of setting my army out before my opponent settled on a list, and he counterpicked with:
Grand Exemplar Kreoss
- Fire of Salvation
Exemplar Bastions (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Exemplar Bastions (Leader and 2 Grunts)
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer
Knights Exemplar (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Knights Exemplar (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Exemplar Errant Seneschal
Knight Exemplar SeneschalTier 4 eKreoss. Extra 2" of deployment, advance move on the knights, and a free 3pt Seneschal. This is a quality tournament list and I dare say better than anything I field at 35pts. It hurts my list in particular because Kreoss makes all of his knights--the entire army sans FoS--immune to continues effects, and his feat allows autohitting. Autohitting > Daughters, Weapon Master Spam > Jack Spam, Continuous Effect immunity > 10pts of fire generators and a fire-based feat, ridiculous amounts cover > ranged battlegroup. I would be in quite the bind if I had not designed my list around the scenario!
We go over our lists in detail and then roll for initiative. Kreoss wins and opts to go first. For terrain, we spread the trenches randomly out all over the middle of the board, covering pretty much the whole thing.
Kreoss deploys, wide, as best as one can with that many models, with Kreoss off to my left side. I bricked on that left side.
Turn 1 runs. Because of the extra deployment zone, and advance deploy, and advance move, he's pretty damn far up the board.
Turn 2 I bunker down to draw him out, lobbing AoEs that do nothing because of aegis. Piper hits the Daughters with +1 DEF to bait a feat and I run two into the Errants, Leaders 8" away from both, and rest outside of the Errant's charge range. Eiryss runs off to the side. Goreman blinds 3 Knights Exemplar. Reckoner pops one KE sitting outside of cover(There were too many of them to all fit completely within!). Repenter spray does something or other, or not, I dunno.
Turn 3 Errants charge the Daughters and slaughters the two of them. The bastions run up their full 8" and I got nervous as this is what I had been waiting for: Now everything is too far to run back into the CT in a single turn. Errant Seneschal kills Gorman, Eiryss gets attacked by the KES but he fails to hit with both swings. Some other stuff probably died.
Turn 4 Anastasia ambushes the right board edge, directly across from Kreoss' Command Trench. She bolts 14" for it and ends up 2" outside. I kill and engage some stuff with other stuff, nothing too important. Just aiming to keep Feora and Ana safe.
Turn 5 I explain that the game is going to end next turn if my opponent's army can't deal with Ana this turn. He scrambles for it but everything is too far away.
Turn 6 I walk Ana 3", end the turn and game.
Game two is against Cygnar. Normally I'd be inclined to run eFeora against Cygnar but wanting to get the 5 caster point, and not too happy with all of the cover, I went with the Harbinger instead. She naturally takes Anastasia and I swapped out my normal Reckoner for two Repenters to better handle the cover. I'm a little fuzzy on which set of minor solos I ran:
Harbinger of Menoth
- Repenter
- Repenter
- Reckoner
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts)
Daughters of the Flame (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 5 Grunts)
- Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
The Covenant of Menoth
The Wrack (3 wracks)
Vassal of MenothMy opponent ran something to the effect of:
Captain Allister Caine
- Defender
- Stormclad
- Squire
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts)
- Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
Stormblade Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts)
- Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard
- 1 Stormblade Infantry Storm GunnerJourneyman Warcaster
Note that this is 1pt too much if I'm remembering everything correctly. Still, that's one Jack too many for eCaine to be running so not too bad
eCaine wins the roll off and goes first. His deployment is all over the place. I brick up in the CT, Errants squared up with ATGM, Daughters with Stormblades. Gameplan is the same here as it was last time: Bait his army out too far for him to recover and send in Ana. This would mean purposefully ignoring my feat to let him gain more ground, and not being as aggressive with the Daughters as I could be. This will also be much harder against eCaine with his extreme threat ranges, ability to see through Stealth, and RAT.
Turn 1 he runs and turn 2 I kite. Turn 3 ATGM roll ridiculously well with sniped shots and wax too many Errants to count. Everything moves up as expected. Turn 4 Ana goes and I engage nearly everything. Repenters spray at Caine, boost and miss. T5 Caine kills Ana. T6 Avatar kills Caine.
Game three is another Menoth player. Still going for the five casters, I put together a pSevvy list:
Grand Scrutator Severius
Blessing of Vengeance
Avatar of Menoth
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts)
Daughters of the Flame (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer
Anastasia di Bray
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
Vassal of MenothMy opponent ran:
Feora, Priestess of the Flame
- Fire of Salvation
- Scourge of Heresy
Deliverers (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Flameguard Cleansers (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Temple Flameguard (Leader and 9 Grunts)
- Temple Flameguard Officer & Standard
High Paladin Dartan Vilmon
Paladin of the Order of the Wall
Paladin of the Order of the WallNot to be outdone by my last opponent, this one takes two extra points. I'm guessing he didn't mean to max the TFG or take a second Paladin, but he did. Again it's not too bad as his list has one too many jacks than it should and needs a good deal of tuning.
Feora wins the roll and goes first. He kept the Deliverers and Cleansers back in his deployment zone. I'm assuming he grasped what Anastasia could do as I explained her to him, unlike my other opponents. Avatar destroys FoS and then I run into a string of bad luck. I tie the SoH up for two turns and the Avatar has charges on him for both, but he gets 2 focus both times. Sevvy barely misses a Paladin with an arced Ashes to Ashes on one turn, failed to kill on another(Needed a 6 on 3d6). He's presses in with everything, feats on most of my army save Sevvy who ran for the door. BoV gets 3 focus and walks up to Feora with ARM 17. Dice -2 with 4 hits, she's left on one. Avatar is forced to gaze and run to prevent my CT from being over run. I roll super lucky on fire(Yayfor bad dice) Unable to escape the gaze, my opponent concedes.
Game four is against a new Trolls player. Anthony announces there's an hour left and I give up on playing five casters and go for the win instead. Harbinger, this time:
Harbinger of Menoth
- Reckoner
Avatar of Menoth
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts)
Daughters of the Flame (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Visgoth Juviah Rhoven & 2 Honor Guard
Anastasia di Bray
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord
The Covenant of Menoth
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal of MenothMy oppenent ran:
Borka Kegslayer
- Dire Troll Blitzer
- Earthborn Dire Troll
Trollkin Champions (Leader and 4 Grunts)
- Skaldi Bonehammer
Alten Ashley, Monster Hunter
Fell Caller Hero
Trollkin Champion HeroBorka wins the roll and goes first. Ana's too busy winning me games to give me good reconnaissance, I guess. Not familiar enough with Trolls to comment on the effectiveness of this list.
T1 advance. T2 Reckoner pop Champ Hero with a double boosted Assault from 20" away, Daughters kite around the champs, and stuff runs up. T3 stuff runs up some more and Blitzer activates enliven on the Reckoner and he moves to threaten the Earthborn. T4 Ana comes in, Avatar kills Blizter, sets Fell Caller on fire, and locks down Ashley, Reckoner does a bit of damage to the Earthborn. One of the company men charges and takes out a Champ. Daughters run in to prevent things from moving back. It works. He claws through the Daughters but is unable to gain ground, much less stop my spy.
The winner of the event (Khador) had 33pts, all but one possible after playing five games. Second place (Cygnar) had 23pts and I believe went 3-2. I had 20 and I believe the only other undefeated player, taking the Menoth coin. There was another person with 20pts (Cryx) but not as good a win record.
Overall I'm not putting too much weight in the results of this. The scenario designers really didn't take into account Ambush. I wasn't the only one to pick up on this and one player was running a full unit Ambushing Swordknights, although they had to leave early. I'm not sure if the surprise element Ana makes her better than the SKs, easier to forget about a solo The list building format is also very different and allowed for some faction specific tailoring, like leaving out Rhoven and Company when not facing factions known for their stealth or cloud effects. This made building 35pt lists manageable, but at the same time allowed for the same countermeasures to be taken by a savvy opponent.
Can't wait for a real tournament.
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