Monster Brawl Basel (MBB) 2013

Getting ready for the MBB 2013 - the Tau didn't make the trip back. ;-)

The MBB is a tournament usually taking place at the Gymnasium Liestal near Basel, Switzerland. The tournament is located in the school's cafeteria and its patio which offer tons of space and first class catering. Honestly, at the venue I had my best meal and the best price at a Swiss tournament ever:

Ice Tea, country potatoes with sour cream, ratatouille, and roasted chicken.

Before we could have lunch, some major gaming had to be done with my Trollbloods, of course.

Game 1 - pGrim vs. The Old Witch

I decided to pick my Grim list since I figured I would need some shooting in this match-up against high DEF infantry. This game I played against Nicolas "Lt_Gaga" Bajic from Konstanz who picked his Old Witch list.

This is how we set up.

Nicolas went first and surprised me how quickly his troops advanced.

In my first I tried to establish a firebase on my left flank with my Trolls and pGrim, after that the Fennblades cautiously charged.

On his turn, Nicolas' cavalry charged in and anything but totally annihilated the Nyss Hunters on the right. The Fennblades were melting like butter in the sun, too.

Desperate to get the ball rolling, pGrim tried to cast "Marked for Death" onto the Old Witch, but just fell a couple millimeters short (yes, I measured the control range prior to that). The Bomber got the Impaler's animus and started to shoot the warjack letting the Old Witch suffer the blast damage. Unfortunately, this wasn't enough to kill her.

Naturally, all of Nicoles units closed in on pGrim now.

On my turn nothing really happened, I was just trying to attack as many of his units as possible.

On his turn, Nicolas won the game with six CP as his Old Witch was camping alone in the zone for three turns.

Once the game was over, +Botond Gati pointed out Nicolas couldn't have won because he didn't destroy his mission objective, so the Old Witch couldn't dominate the zone. With the tournament organizers we agreed that Nicolas got 3 CP for controlling the zone and a caster kill instead - pGrim was holding the line like a boss with his high DEF, but obviously it would have been only matter of time to finish him off.

Lunch!

Möru entertaining everyone else. :-)

Game 2 - pGrim vs. eKreoss T4

Well, so finally I had to eat the sour apple and play against +Dante Suwanda evil list - he only had this list for the entire tournament, BTW, so you can guess how good it is. Basically it's just a sea of Menoth infantry you can't get rid of. Once again I picked my pGrim list because I figured throwing templates is my best chance.

This is how we set up.

My Trollbloods carefully moved forward to stay out of charge range and shoot them next turn.

The Protectorate moved to the flags and took a couple shots, but nothing that really mattered.

The Fennblades on the left charged carefully with everyone except three staying back for a countercharge after Dante's countercharge next turn. The Bomber started to throw templates, but only could throw one as he got knocked down because of some foul eKreoss magic. The Nyss on the right did a couple CRAs. Grim also popped his feat.

Here, Dante's infantry simply walked in and started to thin out my lines. It turned out pGrim was way too far in the back, so most unity could still charge.

The Bomber and the Pyre Troll continued to throw one template each, the Impaler annoyed the Menoth Jack with a critical hit on his spear.

Slowly but surely the Fennblades and the Nyss disappeared.

Back in my turn again I shifted everyone to the left except for the Nyss. pGrim, the Impaler, and the Bomber took shots on eKreoss, but on the hill behind the rock he was well enough protected.

In Dante's turn, he essentially charged pGrim and ended this game with an assassination victory.

Game 3 - pGrim vs. eKrueger

Game 3 was against Thomas Fuchs' Circle army. I came here to play my pDoomshaper T4 list as much as possible, but I knew I needed some shooting to get rid of those pesky Shifting Stones no matter what warlock he picks, so pGrim was in for the ride again.

This is how we set up.

This is how my army advanced in turn 1.

This is how much of my army was left after Thomas' turn 1 with all that electricity flying around. At the same time it was also eKruger's feat turn.

In my turn 2, the Bomber charged with the Pyre Troll's animus and heavily crippled the wolf, but didn't kill him. In other words, nothing was really gained here.

Thomas focused on killing my Fennblades and started to throw things around with double handed throws. Okay...

In my turn, pGrim moved, put "Marked for Death" on eKrueger, and shot his gun. The Bomber dropped two bombs on eKrueger and got him down to four health points left. Once again, almost killing someone isn't the same as fully killing someone, so nothing was gained here either.

In return, pGrim got killed...

...with only 51s left on Thomas' clock.

I guess I could have won this by either doing better at assassination or running down the clock - which I didn't notice until the very end of the game, unfortunately. Either way, Circle continues to be a problem for me.

Game 4 - pDoomshaper vs. Kraye

Game 4 was against Werner Schosser's Cygnar Kraye list. Here it helped that I previously was a Cygnar player while Werner wasn't that familiar with Trollbloods. Since I was locked in in my choices I had to play the pDoomshaper list - but I would have done so against his army anyway.

This is how we set up. Evidently, my Rune Shapers on both flanks had to take care of the Ranger's (on both flanks, too), while my Trolls were forming a solid core in the center together with Janissa. I decided to ignore the zone, but try to position pDoomshaper at the flag.

My Trolls moved, the Rune Shapers attempted to throw templates, but were still out of range.

Werner's warjacks essentially moved into cover behind the wall he got from his T4 list while the Hunters were trying to take shots, but other than that nothing really happened.

Now it was time for the Rune Shapers why they are not to be laughed at although they are only three men units. From all the options I had in the center I decided to cautiously move the wall forward to see what Werner would do. I didn't see any benefit in running to his wall and get one round of beatings in return - especially since the Mauler and the EBDT didn't have reach to attack accross his wall.

This was the key turn. Werner wanted to charge accross his wall, but I told him he can't do that unless he has Pathfinder. Very unhappy he decided to stay behind the wall, just to find out after the game that Kraye would have had a fitting spell. :-( The Ranger's moved in trying to kill Janissa, but fortunately they could only run her down to one health point. At this point, Tough rolls were the most cursed thing in Werner's universe. On the right, the Rune Shapers started to have fun with the Minuteman for the rest of the game.

In my turn, I tried to be more risky as things seemed to go in my favor. In the center, the EBDT charged Ryan and ended up in front of Kraye's wall as I figured he's the best model to stay there with his animus. The Mauler moved up and charged Lynch, too. Mulg was just moving, ready to move in wherever he is needed. pDoomshaper popped his feat and started to camp at the flag with three fury.

The moment of truth: both Hunters shot at pDoomshaper, but failed their To Hit rolls. The EBDT ate some damage from the Stormclad's sword, but didn't really care at ARM 20. The Minuteman once again was frustrated of the Rune Shaper's Tough rolls.

The EBDT walked around the wall and one rounded the Stormclad. Mulg charged and one rounded the Centurion. The Mauler ran into Kraye's melee range.

I forgot to take a picture of Werner's turn, so here we are back in my turn again where the EBDT essentially chased Kraye and one rounded him for an assassination.

This game basically taught me that no tournament is over until the last game has been played. Werner was too defensive, didn't have exactly a list that could cope with my three heavies, and of course he suffered bad luck on top of that, too. However, I am sure the next time I play him it will be much harder.

The telling sign I spent my weekend at at tournament. :-)