Ropecon 2011

The biggest roleplaying, larping and miniatures convention is now over. For me it meant two days of Warmachine/Hordes and avoiding larpers/cosplayers as much as possible. On Friday evening we had a 25-point Highlander v2 feat. No Characters -tournament. My list was pVlad, Devastator, Spriggan, Widowmakers, Marksman, Wardoggy and Greylord Ternion. My plan was to shoot infantry with Widowmakers, and be indestructable with Vlad and Devastator while Spriggan was lurking for assassination vectors.

In the first game I was paired against Jani's Trollbloods army (Grissel, Swamp Troll, Mauler, Kriel Warriors, Krielstone gang, Chronicler). I was really scared at first: Jani went first and the scenario was Incursion. So, after his first turn about whole his army was beyond the flags and up in my face. I moved up and started shooting with Widowmakers, inflicting damage nicely. On his second turn he charged Spriggan and inflicted major pain on him but didn't kill it. On my second turn I used my feat, ran Devastator to one objective and charged Spriggan to Mauler and to hold the second objective. Spriggan didn't kill Mauler, but Widowmakers kept shooting the endless waves of Trolls. On his next turn he scrapped my Spriggan and I had no choice but to send Vlad to hold the center objective. Though, I was not really worried about that, he seems to be quite tough nut to kill with Blood of Kings. His Grissel was close to that objective too and we ended up bashing each other's casters for a couple of rounds. In the end he was not able to kill Vlad and Vlad finished off Grissel.

My second game was against Olli's Cryx (pAsphyxious, McThralls, Surgeon, two nodes and Harrower). Scenario was Destruction this time. Olli started and ran everything towards me. I shot with widowmakers and moved up a bit. On my second turn I managed to charge Harrower with Spriggan, but on his third turn he charged Spriggan with pAspy, used feat and turned it into a pile of scrap. Widowmakers and Greylords killed all McThralls but Aspy was able to kill all my other models too besides pVlad. So in the end we had only Vlad and Asphyxious standing, watching each other. He could always move up a bit, throw some spells at me and Teleport to safety, so I saw no other choice than to try casting some missiles at him (while casting BoK to keep me alive). Missile missed, Asphyxious charged me, hit me and killed Vlad in that one activation. This game got me really frustrated as I had thought I could beat any caster in end game but it wasn't like that. But no worries, this was the more casual tournament and had only one game left.

In the last game of the night I was paired against Tero's Circle army (eKrueger, Stalker, Woldwyrd, Woldshooters, min Wolf Riders, Shifting Stones). This time scenario was the radial "control the center and contest a flag with warcaster". Armies met at the center, he charged and destroyed my Spriggan with Stalker. I was able to kill Woldwyrd with pVlad's charge (previously shot it with some Widowmakers) and sent Devastator to use Rain of Death against Krueger. I rolled 13 and already rolled a branch where he'd transfer the damage. He just raised his hand to shake mine as the Stalker was full of Fury. This completely caught me off guard, but I guess that's just fine in WM/H. I can't really remember another time where I have killed an opposing caster completely accidentally.

Later that night we grabbed some beers, went to sauna and played some drunken hardcore WM/H. Next time I'll write about Saturday's main tournament (and one of the most horrible hangovers I've had in ages).

First games with Damiano

I managed to find a counts-as-miniature for Damiano (God I hate that model...) last week and even got a couple of test games with it already. My first list was Highborn Covenant:


Captain Damiano (*6pts)
* Mangler (8pts)
Alexia Ciannor & the Risen (Alexia and 9 Risen Grunts) (5pts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
* Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer (2pts)
* * Mariner (8pts)
Steelhead Halberdiers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Steelhead Riflemen (Leader and 9 Grunts) (9pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts)
Master Gunner Dougal MacNaile (2pts)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (1pts)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (2pts)
Sylys Wyshnalyrr (2pts) 

First game was against Scaverous' quite basic Cryx army (Deathjack, Banes, min unit of Biles, a couple of nodes, solos and stuff). My opponent managed to kill my Gun Mages on his second turn (Excarnated Bile Thralls have too big threat range) and then I had huge troubles killing his Banes (especially Tartarus) and at the same time they just multiplied (grrrr, Tartarus...). His DJ was hiding behind a forest at the beginning of the match, and finally I managed to throw my Mangler at him (with Warpath, on my feat turn). Mangler only managed to scratch the DJ and on the next turn my poor Mangler was turned into a Seether. I thought ARM22 was something, but against Cryx it wasn't... At this point I had only remnants left of my units and nothing was able to destroy to heavy warjack so we shook hands. What I learned from this game?

I hate Cryx.

Also, play better. The game definitely was not lost at the beginning, I should have kept Gun Mages more safe to kill Banes. Also, my list seems to be missing the thing to kill Tartarus, that might be worth some thinking...

For next game I swapped Halberdiers and Alexia to Boomhowler's gang and Ragman. I just got the Boomhowler's miniatures and was really eager to test them out. On paper they should work very well with Sure Foot. This time I was playing against Kromac's Circle army: Stalker, Pureblood, Gnarlhorn, Gorax, Wolves of Orboros and the like.

The game was fast and bloody. I casted Sure Foot on Mangler, surrounded him with Boomhowler and armies started to meet on the midfield. On my second turn I gave Boomhowler Deadeye and went after Wolves. My dice failed horribly, and didn't really hurt anyone. Next turn the Wolves charged Boomhowler&Co but B&Co lasted well, just as planned. At the same time he sent Stalker for an assassination run. It ended up quite luckily as Stalker stopped about 2,5" from Damiano after Warpath movement. Then I proceeded to kill about his entire his army which he had to leave quite vulnerable for him assassination to have a chance. I still almost managed to fail and left Damiano within 13" of Kromac. Luckily (again, for me) I had one last Boomhowler's buddy standing in front of Damiano and my opponent had nothing to kill it. First victory with Damiano, wohoo!

So, post-game thoughts then. Boomhowler&Co worked just like I had hoped, DEF15 and 4+ KD-immune tough seemed to cause some problems on my opponent. Deadeye is such an awesome spell on pretty much any unit, but especially on Gun Mages. SH Riflemen didn't convince me yet really well, but it might be just the opposing armies' fault, I didn't get a real chance in either game to use them properly.

That's all this time. Thanks for reading this far!