Steamroller Battle report Nakamurabashi Japan. 35 points! Earthquakes! Dodging Legion!

Life without Gators!

Just look at how relaxed these people are.

I had the supreme novelty of playing Warmachine on the floor, while not chasing terrain blown by the wind or stepping on models or all of the other inconveniences table-floor gaming induces.

In fact the tatame style Warmachine was quite a pleasure and authentically Japanese despite all of the white faces.

Onwards to victory.

This was a 10 player 35 point Steamroller event that essentially was run as hardcore with painting requirements and deathclock (chessclock).

The field was something like...

Trolls: Madrak, Doomshaper.

Trolls: Madrak, ...?

Convergence: Syntherion, ...?

Retribution: Kaelyssa, Rahn.

Retribution: Issyria, Garryth.

Menoth: Avataar, Kreoss.

Cryx: Goreshade3, Asphixious .

Cryx: Mortenebra, Sturgis2.

Circle: Kromac, Kaya.

Legion: Rhyas, Thagrosh2.

I ran the Retribution with Issyria and Garryth.

Serious business kill stuff good to win games list.
Issyria Sybil of Dawn
Banshee(10points)
Mage Hunter Assassin(2points)
Mage Hunter Assassin(2points)
Hunter Strikeforce(8points)
Mage Hunter Commander(2points)
Stormfall Archers(5points)
Stormfall Archers(5points)
House Shyeel Artificer
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

Garyth support late game assassin list.
Garryth
Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker(2points)
Chimera(6points)
Dawnguard Sentinels(9points)
Dawnguard Sentinel Officer & Standard(2points)
Souless attachment
Dahlia Hallyr & Skarath(9points)
House Shyeel Artificer(3points)
Mage Hunter Strikeforce(5points)
Eiryss, Mage Hunter Commander(3points)

I went 4 and 0 played each list twice, 11  Control points and about 120 destruction points.

Game 1, Scenario 1 Destruction.

We tried to imagine a serene battle of floating Zen babe versus Demi god duel but our Japanese infected minds could only come up with this.

Issyria Vs Harbinger

Harbinger

Avatar

Reckoner

Vanquisher

Daughters

Knights Exemplar?

Nicea

Chior.

Every game today started with my opponent winning the dice roll, going first then me choosing the side I'm sitting on. Except for the first game where he won but decided to go second.

Highlights

• Kill boxed himself to give me 2 CP after he feated because he didn't want Issy feated MHSF to kill Harby.
• First turn Issyria blinding lighted the daughters and aiming SFA and MHSF killed all but 1.
• On the next turn under Issyrias feat a MHA did 26 damage to the Avatar.
• The previous turn the Banshee went up to KD the Avatar but rolled snake eyes. I forgot about purification so Admonition did nothing and the Avatar wrecked the Banshee.
• Holt killed Nicea, good times.

Deployment

Issyria assumes the position.

 Assassins on the flank, Banshee center to inhibit daughters. Strike force fanning around him with the Archers in the back ranks.

Menoth turn 1

Menoth rushes forward and the Harbinger feats to hold my army in place.

Ret turn 2, during harbingers feat.

 The Banshee gets in the zone. With Issyrias blinding light the Strike Force and the Stormfalls clear out most of the infantry. Nothing else advances much for fear of that Menoth sillyness.

Menoth turn 2

 Hilariously forgetting about Purification and having rolled snake eyes to KD the Avataar it walks up and ruins the Banshee. Menoth wreck the objective and net 2 comfortable points. Well they would be comfortable if Harby didn't Killbox herself.

Ret turn 3.

Ret feat turn.
Opportunity seized, the Assassin rolls something like 6,6,5,4,1 with Issys feat and clefts Avatar of Menoth in twain. One Errant is left alive, 2 jacks killed, Nicea was dispatched by Holt and the remaining jack was crippled.

Menoth turn 3.

 The remaining jack and the Errant fail to achieve much of anything despite killing some elves.

Retribution turn 4

Retribution clear out the zone and the objective to let Issyria Dominate for 5 points.

Game 2 Scenario 2 two Fronts

Garryth Vs Madrak

Madrak
Mauler
Axer
Thrower/Tosser?
Pyre Troll
Fennblades no UA
Northkin Firetrolls?
Runeshapers

He won the roll, I went second.

I have to admit I am not proud of this game. At Ret turn 5 there was a fair amount of discussion if Garryth could fit into the gap to kill Madrak. We called over a couple of unbiased judges and they declared he couldn't charge. Which I could live with, except after they left they set it as a failed charge and had me killing an intervening troll. The thing is I had to rewind with my opponent pointing out that Garryth could walk to Madrak if he had the space, and I hadn't actually declared a charge. So I ended up walking into the trolls 4 inches to find I cant fit through the gap and then walking back 3.

I also feel like a giant douche for making my opponent miss a ranged attack he declared on Garyth with his axe. Stealth yo.

We had lunch before this game, I came back after 2 beers and a massive curry and felt this was in no way an advantage.

Troll turn 1

Ret turn 2

 The Dire Troll Mauler had set up, with the rest of his army very aggressively on the front lines. The sentinels however didn't have as much impact as I would like. 2 Sentinels and Skarath did manage to kill the Mauler however.

Ret turn 3

 Trolls went up on a Control point and I had to do some severe mental juggling to get Dahlia into the zone and do something productive with Skarath.  Eyriss was plinking the beasts to make Fury management a problem, causing Madrak to cut.

Ret turn 4

Ret turn 5

 Dahlia fluffs about in the zone stopping him from scoring, which gives Garryth time to play cautiously front line not spending his focus. Eyriss, Sylys and a mage hunter tried to clear the intervening troll blocking Garryths charge lane but all failed.

Trolls turn 5

So at this point the awkward squeeze moment was resolved and Garryth stepped back into the zone. I was pretty sure it was game over. I had a Mage Hunter, Sylys and Dahlia. Then a stroke of massive luck hit.
He was seriously running hot and could only leach from the Axer. As a result both the Pyre troll and the Spear Chucker/tosser/thrower frenzied taking out the Axers spirit. Never the less a fully loaded Madrak went in on Garryth and didn't even connect due horrible bad luck or the fact that Garryth is a badass.

Ret turn 6

Madrak kept 2 transfers, mistakenly thinking he could use them. Garryth still burnt all of his fury putting the troll down, although I had to remind him to use his scroll.

Game 3 Scenario 7 Outflank

Gaspy
some kind of tier
Those really bad infantry
machine Wraith
Deathripper
Cankerworm
Handful of jacks, no characters so no worries.
Mechanics to use the scrap tokens.

He prefaced the game with something like "My battle group gets plus 2 speed" to which my silent response was...

Honestly the faster things run into Issyrias gun line the happier she is. Well unless its too fast I suppose, then it would be horrible.

Deployment

Cryx run up first turn.

 There was a brief interlude for an earthquake in which I sat paniked and the Japanese people continued to play with 0 fucks given.

Ret turn 1

Issyria feats casts Crusaders call and puts Invoiable Resolve on the Strike Force.
One Assassin fluffs the dice and misses her jack, but the other Assassin lands a crippling blow leaving it on about 7 hit points.
Two Stormfall Archers finish off the crippled jack with Sniped shots and put some damage on the one the first assassin missed.
The second unit of Stormfalls put down some more damage on the jack with a mix of Brutals and Sniped shots. One shot went wide and landed on a pair of the Thralls behind.
Strike force advance, finish off the crippled jack and cripple the Cankerworm and put a dent into the remaining jack.

Cryx turn 2 damage control.

 With much lamenting of Issyias feat (the very fuel which powers it!) the arc node positions up on my right flank and his jacks/infantry kill my Assassins and put some Strike Force down.
He Caustic Mists Aiyanna and Holt and a pair of Stormfalls causing the other 2 in the unit to flee. Then charges a thrall he had set up, tries to parasite the Strike Force and fails, feats, kills nothing with the feat (needed nines to kill Strike force with IR and Stormfalls, got none) Camps 4 Focus and hopes he can take it on the chin. Then basically kills himself as he moves a jack and one of those crab mechanics up behind Gaspy.

Ret turn 3

Issyria gives the Banshee 2, floats over the wall she was behind, Blinding lights Gaspy then Ancillary attacks with the Banshee but misses, this however confirmed that the Banshee was in range.
The banshee aimed and boosted and slammed Gaspy into the jack behind him, boosting damage it half killed him.
The non fleeing stormfalls open up with Brutal damage shots and leave him on one box and set him on fire.
Then the artificer comes out, Magno blasts an exploding scrap thrall thing, dragging in another and killing both with the explosion.
Three Mage Hunters charge through the gap and finish Gaspy off.

At this stage I was on 3 wins and the only un defeated player. But because the TO hates me we had to do a fourth round.
Thankfully I got dropped against the other Ret player and dodged the guy using Convergence, and using it well.

Game 4 Scenario 8 Recon

Was super happy about this match up. He had Rahn with 2 units of Battle Mages and Force Wall with 2 units of Battle Mages. Garryth was my pick.

Kaelyssa Vs Garryth

Kaelyssa Force Wall tier 4

Pheonix

Manticore

Griffon

Griffon

Battle Mages x2

Arcanist x3

Kaelyssa turn 1

 He positions with decent threat.

Garryth turn 1

I walk forwards, Mirage the Sentinels and for the first time, ever in the recorded history of a Garryth game which was won, I cast Pyschic Vampire. The Strike Force kill 3 Battle Mages which was a stellar effort.

Kaelyssa turn 2

 One Griffon goes Fleet and charges Eyriss but misses. A covering fire goes down and then the Pheonix advances, Kaelyssa arcs a Rift but it lands on the covering fire.
Kaelyssa Feats.

Garryth turn 2

With all of the jacks and Kae relatively close Garryth decides its time to feat. The Chimera takes one and advances in front of Garryth. The Sentinels mirage forward then run, fanning out in front of his army.
The Mage Hunters fail to kill the Griffon and drastically Skarath uses four fury to try and kill it but leave it on a box.
Garryth feats and charges forward catching most of Kaes army in his feat.

Kaelyssa turn 3

 Kae withdraws her jacks from the zone to be able to use the focus on them. She shoots Dahlia and kills her because I am a chump.

Garryth turn 3

 However mistakes were made, pulling out of the zone made it easy for my Miraging Venganced sentinels to clear it out, the Chimera killed the objective and I happily scored 3 points.
Garryth gunned down a Battle mage and the Strike Force freed up from Vengeance tried to shoot up his Arcanists.
4 Sentinels charged his Pheonix and crippled it but not enough.

Kaelyssa turn 4

 Garryth was pretty terrified of getting shot by Kae so he was mostly hiding behind the Artificer.
The battle mages turned around and cleared off the Sentinels one used a force bolt (for the first time ever Psychic Vampire netted a kill, totally worth the 5 or so focus invested in it at this point.)  around the Pheonix which charged in and killed the Chimera. The Manticore toed the zone. Thinking he had enough models in the zone he killed a couple more Sentinels and the Souless and sat happy.

Garryth turn 4

Garryth kept all his focus, charged the Pheonix and killed it. Then in a short moment of insanity I almost gallowsed the jack, which would have been all kinds of bad.
I cast a Death Sentance on the Arcanist behind the jack and Garryth ended his turn, vulnerable.
The Artificer moved up, magno blasted the Arcanist and pulled the jack out of the zone. Game Over, I won 5 points.

At this stage there were many calls of segoy and sensei as the play had more swag than possibly...

this guy.

To be honest it was an extremely clutch play, as had my other Garryth game been.
I did have some good games but only as much as I got lucky.
Sadly not facing Butchers and masses of high armor shield wall Troll, Khador and Skorne infantry the Dahlia and Garryth combo isnt finding as much purchase as it did back in the Auckland meta.


Anyway after negotiating with the TO to give me my first place prize I thanked everyone for the excellent tournament. Went home and collapsed in a gibbering heap.

Congrats if you made it this far and thanks for reading!

Garyth vs Cygnar, Siege. Battle report.

Cygnar vs Retribution

Quick Battle Report

Garyth vs Siege

50 points

Deployment

  I was actually pretty terrified of what I thought siege could do and generally imagined this as a terrible match up for me

Ret first turn

 Discordia advances and imprints, standing close enough for the Sentinels to come up and benefit from the imprint.

Dalia full advances and casts Haunting Melody, Skarath runs and riles for 1.

Garyth advances and puts Mirage on the Sentinels.

Elara casts Battle Charged

Cygnar first turn

 His entire army advances. I dont really know siege as much as I dont really know Cygnar.

Journeyman Defenders Wards the Trenchers.

Trenchers at the vanguard combine and kill 2 Battle mages between 6 of them. Other shots made at the Battle Mages behind cover miss.

One of the jacks shoots Discordia for some damage.

Ret second turn

Activation order.

•  Garyth upkeeps Mirage
• Mirage.
• Dahlia leeches and upkeeps
• Elara gives black Griffon 1 focus and green Griffon 2 focus.

The best way to deal with a gun line is by jamming it.

1. Sylys gives Garyth Arcane Secrets.
2. Garyth advances to the wall. I was actually pretty terrified of what I thought siege could do and generally imagined this as a terrible match up for me. This is why I didn't rush out and feat sooner but let Eyriss run interference.  Casts Death Sentence on the trenchers and shoots 2 with his hand guns.
3. Arcanist gives Discordia 1 focus.
4. Discordia advances, Imprints and then sprays down about 4 using Death Sentence to ensure accuracy.
5. Skarath advances and sprays down 3 Trenchers, boosting to hit.
6. Dahlia runs behind the objective
7. Green Griffon imprints for +2 spd and runs to engage the group of Gun Mages and some Black 13th
8. Artificer advances and gives Black Griffon a Focus.
9. Black Griffon runs and engages Jacks and more Swans.
10. Battle Mages advance and kill a Trencher each.
11. Magister kills another.
12. Sentinels get a run charge, 2 hit the front line and kill 2 more Trenchers while the rest huddle around Discordia.
13. eEyriss runs through the gap that is now created, she positions in a spot which gives Technological Interference with all of his Jacks.

Cygnar second turn.

What he couldn't do.

• Give focus to his jacks

What he did do.

• Kill a large chunk of sentinels with Ground Pounder
• Shoot at Discordia
• Shoot at Skarath
• Engage in melee combat with the Griffons.
• Charge his Journeyman at a Griffon
• Some shooting into combat 
• Knocked black Griffon down.

What he didn't do but I thought he could or should have.

• Kill Eyriss, either by dropping a ground pounder on her or using the Black 13th
• Use Black Penny, with anything
• Achieve anything useful in general.

Retribution turn 3

 Vengance, Vengence, Vengeance. 

• Skarath frenzies and charges and crit consumes the last remaining Trencher
• The green Griffon with 3 focus kills the Journeyman Warcaster
• Sentinels sweep up the flank killing the jack.
• Sylys activated and gave Garyth sexy whispers
• Garyth death sentenced the mechanics and shot a couple.
• Discordia sprays down a handful of the mechanic goblin things. (they looked menacing)

Cygnar turn 3

 What he couldn't do

• Give focus to his one remaining jack
• Achieve anything without disengaging his Gun Mages
• Use his light jack because the Journeyman died

What he did do

• Ground pounded more Sentinels to dust.
• Shot the Griffon with push back rounds out of combat and down the table.
• Repaired his jack.
• Left his caster far enough away that Garyth cant charge him.

 What he didn't do

• He still didn't kill Eyriss
• He didn't feat (not that he might have had any reason to at this point)

Retribution turn 4

 3 control points for Retribution.

What Garyth has been afraid of all this time.

I don't really know what siege does but I had a suspicion if he feated and hit Garyth with a Ground Pounder or something like it he was dead, very likely dead.
I probably could have gone for the kill but.

1. Its good practice to score scenario points
2. I didn't want to make it look like it was so easy
3. I was genuinely concerned about cracking armor 17 even with 4 pow10s and 2 pow 12s

•  Skarath Charges and engages more Gun Mages
• Green Griffon does the same.
• Battle Mages charge the Objective and fail to destroy it
• Garyth charges the objective and finishes it off.
• Sentinels and black Griffon mop up in center.

Cygnar turn 4

•  Gun mages get up and try to melee with Skarath
• Darius stands up and makes his attack hitting Discordia

 First lesson in the assassination game.

1. Knock them down, if you have any way of doing it then use it. 

Ret turn 5

 I could have given Discordia 2 and made sure he knocked Siege to the ground but I didn't.

Garyth charging has 8 melee attacks, at mat 8 and arcane assassin you would think this is a sure thing.

Its not.

Garyth charged Siege, hit with first attack rolled below 6 damage on 4 dice.

Miss.

Miss.

Miss.

Miss.

Miss.

Hit and some damage leaving him on 5 boxes

Hit and killed

 The dice gods saw fit to remind me in the first lesson of assassination and let me kill Siege with only my final 2 attacks.

 Retribution win on assassination and 4 control points.

 

Garyth vs Circle, Kromac. 35 points

Circle vs Retribution

Quick Battle Report

Garyth vs Kromac

35 Points

First turn Circle

Retribution                                                  

Garyth                                                              
Discordia                                                              
Sylys                                                                 
Sentinels with UA                                                  
Arcanist                                                               
Arcanist                                                               
Magister
Elara
Griffon
Griffon
eEyriss

Circle

Kromac
Ghettorix
Pureblood
Winter Argus
Shifting stones and UA
Skinwalkers and UA

First turn Retribution

 Ret advances into position to be able to strike next turn without taking massive casualties.

Mirage goes on to the Sentinels.

Circle turn 2

Kromac advances and throws out a rift which deviates into a pretty useless place.

Wild aggression goes on to Ghettorix

Pureblood warps spell ward and advances. It sprays down a Sentinel

Winter Argus advances on the flank and with 2 sprays boosting to hit, kills 2 Sentinels.

Ghettorx advances into a threatening position, just a little bit too close.
 

Retribution turn 2

Assessing the situation it was time to seize the opportunity my opponent created. Because Garyths main use of his feat against this list is limiting his teleportation and placement potential I needed to use the feat in a way that I could jam him up or slow him down.

Since my opponent had placed his entire army relatively close it was the perfect time to take advantage of his over aggressive positioning.

Mirage and Vengeance put the Sentinels into position to charge Ghettorix.

The Griffon on the left side of the right flank takes 2 focus.

Discordia gets 2 focus.

The Sentinels charge and leave Ghettorix on 4 hit points.


Eyriss shoots off Invoiable Resolve from the back Skinwalker.

Elara and the other Griffon kill the Skinwalker engaging the left hand side Griffon.

The Griffon imprints for speed and charges, finishing off Ghettorix.

Gayrth charges the Pureblood landing short as he knew he would and feats.

Discordia advances and puts a spray down just failing to kill a shifting stone and putting 9 damage on to Kromac which he transfers to the Winter Argus.

 With Garyths feat up the Circle player cannot use his shifting stones, cast spells or even leap with Kromac.

Circle player plans to simply kill the Griffon and deliver Pureblood to face.

Circle turn 3

Plan fails.

Somehow Kromac with feat couldn't kill the Griffon. I say somehow but I remember playing with Kromac back in the day and I remember him always failing to kill things and generally fail to achieve what I expected him to be able achieve.

Winter Argus tries to clear out the Magister to no avail. Actually I suspect he used it on the Griffon too but his dice must have been so horribly bad if that was the case.

Pureblood ends up having to kill the Griffon its damn self.

Skinwalkers also fail to kill Elara. Good turn for Ret.

Retribution turn 3

The Magister goes first and executes an unlikely combo smite, slamming the Pureblood over Kromac.

Garyth charges a knocked down Kromac and dispatches him.

Batrep Garyth vs Absylonia 50 points

Back at what must be what is called a FLGS. 

Had 3 games that afternoon. Now a week ago so exact details may be muddled, however no more than they usually are I'm sure.

Idle shitーchat.

After my 2 games with Issyria I needed to change things up, I find her a horribly limiting caster to play with.

Playing with Issyria is like being held captive in a straight jacket and tied to chair while a james bond villan wails on your nuts through a hole in said chair with a pillowcase full of rocks. Despite the efforts of all of your flailing and requests to scratch delicate itches in the face of adversity, you can't achieve anything. You are waiting for that one chance where your captor isn't paying attention to deliver an exceptionally devastating head butt in the hopes that this will give you enough time to escape.

In other words I find playing with her a painful and maddening struggle entwined with a plan to win in one maneuver, which if fails ends up all Casino Royale.

Anyway if casters were scenarios then Garyth is. A fine cigar, a fine cigar with a fine whisky with a fine shoulder rub from your super fine partner who is praising you after your excellent game of DOTA, wherein you sat in the forest farming for 40 minutes and then stomped face gratuitously without any skill or effort because your motherfucking AntimaGereth.

The lists.

Legion.

Absylonia.

Scythean.

Proteus.

Angelius.

Some Shredders. 4?

Blighted Ogrun Warspears and the UA.

Shepards.

Maybe one of those fury sucking succubus exploding things.

One of those dog thing light war beasts.

Retribution.

Motherfucking AntimaGereth.

Dahlia "Silencer" Hallyr & Skarath.
Elara Tyrio of the Third Chamber.
Sylys "giv me mana" Wyshnalyr of the light, of the light.
Aiyanna & Holt.
Full Infiltrators with 3yriss.
Battle Mages.
2 Arcanist
Artificer
2 Griffons on Elara
Chimera on Gareth.
Magister.

I go first.
Garyth calls mid lane, Elara top and Dahlia bottom.
Infiltrators run forward and spread out, preparing for the worst.
Elara sends her Griffons through the forest which 3yriss is lurking in.

Looking at the tables now I would say I had the terrain heavily in my favor. But then he is playing Legion so whatever.

Dahlia has Haunting Melody up.
Mirage is on the Infiltrators
Elara has battle charged set.

Reading the table correctly, my opponent sees my only heavy on the far flank, so he runs his beasts forward not fearing what my multitude of power 11 and 12s can do.

Forced evolution goes on the Angelius and, Carnage? Goes on to the Scythean. Proteus hangs back behind the ruins and tries to tentacle an Infiltrator.

I couldn't physically get more than 4 Infiltrators on the Angelius, which was my primary target.
Come to think of it I don't know why it was my primary target but it was.

Order of activation was something like this.

Chimera takes no focus but apparitions. 

Infiltrators also apparition with Mirage paid for by Sylys.

Sylys activates and whispers sweet nothings to Gareth.

Gareth activates, boosts a death sentence at the Angelius.

Shoots it twice for good measure.

Aiyanna and Holt activate, Aiyanna kisses the Ogrun and Holt shoots one in a fit of jealousy.

Infiltrators activate, thanks to 3yriss fearless leadership, from behind in the bush. They charge the beasts, only 4 make it on to the Angelius.

Despite only 4 Infiltrators charging the Angelius they kill it. However the 5 on the Scythean don't quite finish it off. That's ok I have Griffons. 

Arcanist activate and concentrated power the Griffons who have a focus each from Elara.

With Scythean on about 5 boxes this should be easy. 

First Griffon charges and whiffs. Second Griffons charges hits and whiffs damage.

Dahlia sings her Haunting Melody and runs towards the Ogrun. Skarath sprays over 3, kills the UA and tries to tag Absylonia behind them but misses. 

Battle Mages activate, one walks into engagement with the Scythean and with a well placed Force bolt puts it on one box. The rest pepper the Ogrun.

What really happened is Garyth called a gank on mid lane and with Elaras and Sylys' help and put their carry down. Then he buggered off to the Jungle and left the creeps to push with Sylys. Dahlia farmed.

This turn I forget his activation order.
But I do know Absylonia feats and saves the Scythean.
2 Shredders go rabid but actually fail to kill anything.
The Scythean wrecks one Griffon messes the other up and ruins a bunch of Infiltrators.
Proteus and the dog didn't manage to achieve much.
The Ogrun could not assault or charge thanks to Dahlia, so walk into combat.

Absylonia also put down a no focus aoe on the Griffons. The Ogrun mostly missed all their attacks, the only real hurt was put on by the Scythean.

On left scenario the Magister combo smites one shredder into the other, Killing the target.

So it's been about 40 minutes. Garyth is happily camping in the forest, keeping Mirage up.

The Infiltrators kill the Scythean and put some hurt on Proteus and kill the succubus thing. 

The left zone is cleared so Garyth can dominate. 

Aiyanna keeps flirting with the Ogrun and Holt keeps killing them, Skarath picks off a few. The Battle Mages get together and push what is still alive in the zone, out of the zone. I score 2.

Time is pressed so we forget the last photo. Absylonia can't get away from the Infiltrators and stay out of the kill box, so does a ballsy move. He hopes he will clear the zone and dominate it, but fails and Absylonia is left sitting in the zone. The Strike Force Mirage, Garyth death sentences Absylonia and puts on a couple shots and then the Infiltrators finish her off.

GG.