Friday Night WM/H

+Maurus Markwalder and +Andre Suwanda impresing the locals with their WM/H tactics.

Last night we were playing at the Tactica FLGS that we don't get that often to because it's a primarily 40K bunker. However, +Andreas Balmer was int he mood for a game and four more joined, so we basically steamrollered the place. While playing I overheard this dialogue:

40K veteran 1 - "oh, is it WM night?"
40K veteran 2 - "guess so..."

At the end of the evening some guy even purchased a Convergence battle box, let's see we can play him soon. :-D

My game against +Andreas Balmer went pretty bad - he basically had nothing other than the Thunderhead to really kill any of my warbeasts in Runes of War, but he simply outmaneuvered me. (the objective markers on the images count as flags in Incursion.)

At the end of his turn 1 everything had moved forward; I was glad he had the Stormblades not on the side where I had my heavies. I wanted to have the center flag

On my turn, everything ran forward. The Axer was already in a prime position next to the Runeshapers.

On +Andreas Balmer's turn, the Black 13 decided to go up these funky WHFB stairs.

At the end of his turn 2, I had basically lost the game. His infantry sat on the flag in the center, the flag to the right was held by a Stormcaller solo, the flag on the left where all my heavies were sitting had disappeared.

Here, both the scenario and the board were a problem for me because I had no mini with a base small enough to go through that stone arc in the center. I figured I would do well enough passing the arc on its left side with my heavies, but especially once the left flag had disappeared I had 30pts of my army doing nothing for most of the game.

On my turn 2 I hit back and I hit hard. pDoomshaper cast onto the Axer his own animus, the Storm Troll's animus, and Fortune. The Axer moved forward, performed a Thresher Attack, and emptied the ranks of Gun Mages and Boomhowler & Co. The Runeshapers on the right moved to the flag on the right assisted by the Storm Troll, but as I was to find out the Storm Troll is good for nothing in melee.

On his turn 3, the Thunderhead connected with the Axer in the center, but couldn't take him down because of Whelp Shedding.

On my turn 3, Mulg killed a Firefly without a problem plus a Stormcaller. The EBDT killed two Black 13 (which was illegal as it turned out 24h later). The Mauler attacked the Thunderhead, but couldn't one-round him. The right flank was lost, the Storm Troll and the last Runeshaper were just in for cosmetics. pDoomshaper feated with pretty much the entire Cygnar army in his CTRL.

At this point I did another really bad mistake: all my warbeasts were full on fury with eEiryss sneaking up into pDoomshaper's back - if anybody had hit him, he couldn't have transferred damage. I really need to remember that for the future.

Andreas finished the game quickly in his turn - eNemo ran to the flag on the right, dominated it, boom - 5 CP. Congrats. :-D

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. :-)

Bavarian Open Team Tournament (BOTT) 2013

One of the most amazing Cygnar armies I have ever seen.

Well, our team, the Unboostables, have been participating last weekend at the 2013 BOTT with mild success - in the final ranking we ended up on 9th place out of 12. :-)

The BOTT follows the mechanic we see in international team tournaments in WM/H and 40K - there are teams from various nations, each five players strong, and they get paired in individual rounds battling each other. As soon as three or more players of a team win their games, their team obviously wins the round. The Unboostabels won one round and lost four. :-)

My two lists. I was playing eCaine and eHaley plus stuff. The armies are +Botond Gati's.

The Unboostables, ready to have a good time. :-)

3/5 of Team Albania. :-)

Team Salmiakki, our trusted blend of Swedish/Finnish Warmachine aggression with heartfelt friendship. :-)

He doesn't like it when you steal his lunch money.

Orange is way sexier.

The Unboostables battling team Albania. +Robi Deola, do you remember what happened there? ;-)

Lunch was awesome every day with supreme catering.

Norbert's preying eye makes sure rules violators stand no chance.

I just called to say "I love you".

The Unboostables playing the Iron Hookers.

Maurus scoring his first win at a major WM/H tournament. :-)

End of day one in a nice Bavarian Biergarten - I can feel how jealous +Angel Baker is on the other side of the ocean. :-P

The Iron Hookers.

Team Salmiakki to the upper left, Norbert in the center, team Stronghold on the right.

Big G tries to draft Zahnfee as our new recruit. ;-)

The number 1 team - German Lamers. :-D

Packing everything up and saying goodbye. :-(

Game 1

End of game 1.

Basics: game 1 I played with eCaine against team Albania's Oliver Eitschberger and his eFeora list. eCaine got assassinated by his Judicator and his Warjacks' ranged attacks. Yes, quite embarrassing.

Problem:Oliver knew what he was doing and shot his templates on low DEF grunts standing near high DEF solos. That way he shot away all my key solos until he went for the assassination of eCaine.

Solution: I should have remembered that Rhupert not only dishes out Tough, but also Pathfinder. My Forgeguard with Pathfinder should have charged the Judicator through the corn field and brought it down.

Game 2

End of game 2.

Basics: game 2 I played with eCaine against the Iron Hookers' Laszlo Vuray and his Barnabas list. eCaine got assassinated when one of his beast's performed a two-handed throw on Barnabas having him land too close to eCaine.

Problem: Barnabas hid all game in his mobile swamp, so I could not shoot him, until he started for the assassination run himself.

Solution: I should have played my eHaley list and have the Stormwall blast away. Also, I realized that my way of palying eCaine may be too risky.

Game 3

End of game 3.

Basics: game 3 I played with eHaley against team "Mein Bruder und ich"'s Alexander Hoschkara with his Scaverous list. Cryx, Cryx, and in case of doubt even more Cryx. I lost on scenario because I was playing too defensively.

Problem: there was just too much Cryx infantry. It didn't help that I didn't remember to place the Stormwall's pods until turn 3.

Solution: I feated defensively, used eHaley's spells to boost my DEF, and the Stormwall fired away - I was all happy with that. However, I should move my models forward more aggressively and block the Cryx infantry's moving lanes with the Stormwall's and the Black 13th templates.

Game 4

End of game 4.

Basics: game 4 I played with eCaine against team "Dead Fish Syndicate"'s Ben Fröhlich-Rodriguez and his eKrueger list. Once again I lost because of a caster kill and even though I was familiar with the Circle's double teleport.

Problem: everything looked wonderful for me at the beginning of Ben's last turn - or so I believed. eCaine was the boss on his hill with 19/18 and tough Forgeguard (Rhupert) and Boomhowler & Co. with Heightened Reflexes in front of him. Well, Megalith telepoted and cleared away Trolls and Dwarfs all failing their Tough rolls, then he used also some spell to drop eCaine's DEF. eKrueger himself moved in and dropped eCaine's DEF even further down to 13. Ghetorix teleported onto the hill, swung his axe, boosted to hit, and eCaine once again was history.

Solution: I should have either stood more back or have had more Dwarfs and Trolls in front of eCaine in hope that at least some of them would pass their Tough roll.

Game 5

End of game 5.

Basics: I played game 5 with eCaine against Team Stronghold's PalaTin and his eStriker list. This was a game with no surprises as we both knew very well what each other's army was doing. I lost on scenario.

Problem: once again it was infantry spam. Also PalaTin was excellent at moving his troops. The way he moved them was a case book study on how you should move them. He surprised me by running everyone in his second turn again, but only as many soldiers as necessary to bind mine in close combat while the rest stayed back for the countercharge in his turn three. My infantry jammed on and around the hill and could not develop its full power.

Solution: I should have moved my units the way he moved his to be more aggressive and go after the mission objectives. This game was an awesome lesson/experience that I will incorporate into my future games.