Errata, Tournaments, Cons, Conclusions
So, I managed to get a few games in before my first post-errata tournament rather quickly. My first go-to was trying Makeda2 with double swordsmen and anti-ranged delivery equipment (krea, shaman). I played a few games with it, enjoyed the crap out of it, then dropped it. Played a few games with Hexy2, enjoyed gutting my opponents' support and backlines with Ashes, then dropped him.
Then it was time for the first tournament I'd be attending...
Tournament 1:
During the lull between announcement and errata I wound up playing a few games of Guild Ball, picking up alchemists. Overall I wound up going for area denial, lobbing AOE's all over the field and just lighting things on fire or covering them with poison gas. Was a good time. I decided I wanted to do this with Rasheth, and came up with the following list:
Skorne Army - 75 / 75 points
(Rasheth 1) Dominar Rasheth [+28]
- Aradus Sentinel [16]
- Aradus Sentinel [16]
- Aptimus Marketh [0]
Extoller Soulward [3]
Venator Flayer Cannon Crew [5]
Venator Flayer Cannon Crew [5]
Venator Catapult Crew [0]
Venator Catapult Crew [0]
Venator Reivers (max) [15]
-UA [4]
Venator Reivers (max) [15]
-UA [4]
Venator Slingers (max) [13]
Paingiver Beast Handlers (max) [7]
The tournament I went to was 100pts, and I can't remember what I ran exactly, but it was some variation on the above (in theme).
My first game was into Retribution, where I used terrain and walls to keep a unit of... sentinels? from engaging me too hard. Early on I managed to throw a jack into his caster, who moved up because Castigate was keeping her from participating (Heylenna? The bb caster). Landed a BoC on her as well, for a few points. Next turn I got hit hard back, but watching her run for cover I knew I had a good out. Ran two reivers through a forest in the middle, arc'd 2 boosted BoC at her, and took it down.
Game 2: The Mirror.
Was playing into a Morghoul2 list with Karax, Bloodrunners, a Hydra, Krea, Molik, Gladiator and archidon iirc.
I got lucky with scenario placement (okay, the wall from theme really helps you get lucky with terrain in a lot of scenarios) and a few lobbed AOE's. On my feat turn I shot down Molik, his Archidon, and the Hydra (bloodmark, artillery, sentinel shots). It was brutal, but he kept alive for awhile before I won on scenario. Morghoul2 is hard to pin down.
Game 3: I drop. This was part of a community building tournament series, that I'm helping run, and I'm not really in it to win it, as it were. If I stayed in there would be 4 rounds potentially, me dropping cut it to a definite 3 and let me get home in time to go out to dinner with my fiance.
Conclusions:
Damn is this list fun. Gotta get me more of that.... great potential for armor cracking, denial for scenario play, and an absurd volume of attacks that really helps into swarm armies as well if necessary. A+ will be playing for 6 months or so probably.
CaptainCon:
Oooh boy, here we go. CaptainCon's Standard Issue tournament. 16 man flights, first place in each flight goes on to Masters on Sunday. I've only played the above games, and I just got a hydra assembled that I'm itching to use... I bring Rasheth (as above) and:
http://conflictchamber.com/#b91b3VeGeG5Ggl4x5V6v6v
Skorne Army - 75 / 75 points
(Morghoul 1) Master Tormentor Morghoul [+30]
- Aradus Sentinel [16]
- Aradus Sentinel [16]
- Titan Gladiator [15]
- Desert Hydra [38]
- Basilisk Krea [7]
Paingiver Beast Handlers (max) [7]
Extoller Soulward [3]
Extoller Soulward [3]
In theme, because fuck yes wall!
Strategy going in: Drop Morghoul1 first game, hope I'm paired up with someone that isn't well practiced into Skorne and doesn't know what I do yet while I have no idea what I'm doing.
Game 1: Legion
My opponent had Lylyth3 and Thagrosh1. I dropped Morghoul1 as above, he dropped Thagrosh.
He went first, ran some tentacles up and moved the rest of his army up. I respond by throwing out a few scathers, putting up Sandstorm and a krea bubble, keeping up an anti-ranged brick.
A spell martyr comes in on me and puts... uhh... TF? onto the Hydra. His infantry charge in and get very little done. Somehow a deathstalker fails to kill an extoller. Winning.
I use his tentacles to place some scather templates, kill a few sword thingies, anti-ranged animi go up and I pop feat, camping my flag.
My opponent shifts about a bit, moves some stuff up to contest, and positions over towards his flag using Typhon and a Carnivean to contest the zone.
I back the aradus out of combat, throw some scathers to clear lanes, abuse + rush + enrage the hydra and off she goes. 12" charge to the other side of the pit, and she eats Typhon and the Carnivean. RFP, no feat for you.
He goes all out to kill the Hydra, including using Thagrosh. I clear a lane for bluebug, except for 1 free strike from a swordsman. Abuse, enrage, rush, Morghoul walks up... and off he goes! Bluebug charges Thagrosh and eats him.
Game2: Legion... again
I can't remember what my opponents second list was, but I wound up dropping Rasheth into Fyanna.
She has a lot of infantry, zuriel, and Angelius, and supporty stuff.
Turn 1 one of her units of swordy guys gets Iron Flesh, and they all run up in waves. Her beasts move up cautiously.
I respond by teaching my opponent about our lord and saviour Breath of Corruption. Swordsmen are unhappy.
I forget to take a picture.
He pops feat, and moves up aggressively into the center. Ohno! +3 Def! D:
I counter feat, and shoot everything to hell. Did you know that bunker still gets hurt by catapults? Like, a lot? Good times.
She scores a point or four somewhere, I can't really remember... at some point we wind up 4-2 in her favor...
She can't kill enough stuff. Catapults lob more shots and drop the object, I keep controlling the left flag, get the fatman on the right flag, and go to 5. Yes, that is just her left in that picture above.
Game 3: Cryx
Yep, no clue what the pairing was here either. I know I played Denny1 in theme, though.
She runs stuff up, I move up and do my usual BoC BoC moves. A lucky deviation hits Denny, and does 8 damage to her. This is weird, but I'll take it.
Next turn sees Denny come up aggressively and feat, icy grip the slingers, and then proceed to shoot the crap out of me. A machine Wraith gets spawned, which kills my extoller. I lose almost all of the slingers, and quite a few reivers. Things look bad.
Except not really. Denny feated, and just missed a few of my venators. Venators are speed 6, she is Focus 7. They run to within a few inches of her. I feat, lob a BoC, boost damage, and she goes down in 2 activations.
Game 4: Cryx
I'm paired against a guy I carpooled with. This feels weirdly like a local tournament, with us at the final table. I guess this was so absurd, though, that even the TO's fucked up the tournament pairings and results. We knew we were both undefeated, and should be playing one another. We weren't... We went up front, he mentioned he should be playing the other undefeated. They assumed he meant a well known player who was already eliminated. I responded with "No, I'm undefeated..." "Oh, so you should be playing X." Turns out they misreported results because they assumed a certain result overall for our flight...
It was all very aggravating.
ANYWAY
Fat man into Witch Coven. Stuff runs forward, more stuff runs forward, he feats. I run into his feat and start arcing BoC, killing a witch and screwing up some Satyxis. Yes, more blast immune stuff dying to BoC, and even Marketh gets in on the fun.
I hold my feat back, and he retaliates into me HARD. Fortunately, my artillery is still up. I feat, hit bathroom with a blood mark, wipe out a few more Satyxis with BoC, and fire up the Flayers. They shoot at heavies until the legs are out, then the catapults finish them off. A sentinel winds up clearing the middle flag, and I cut down his stuff to keep it from controlling anything this turn.
At this point we just slug it out a bit more, and I wind up getting the assassination off. Too many threat vectors from me for him to really stay safe with his army decimated.
I get to move on to Sunday!
Team Tournament!
I didn't sleep (okay, I got 45 minutes stretched out on some chairs). I stayed up to PG the Midnight Specialists qualifiers. My team finds me in the back of the room. I am their captain. I am half mad.
I don't change my lists. Obesity shall see me through.
Game 1: Cryx
More Cryx? This time I get to play into Gaspy2 - their Skorne player advised this matchup for some reason, he has 30 some infantry...
Round one he runs up with all his stuff, staying immune to blasts with the raiders. Again with this blast immunity stuff...
I counter by just throwing acid clouds and scathers all over them.
He pops a cloud wall to keep his banes safe and charges in with the raiders. Marketh blasts the raiders with BoC. Rasheth goes to hang out on his favorite flag, behind the wall, and throws some BoC blasts back at him in the clouds.
At some point more stuff happens. I realize I can walk into his clouds. This is bad for him. I start throwing BoCs into his banes. They die in droves. He feats to get a scenario edge, so I just wipe out the zone. Eventually Marketh runs over to contest while I control the center and dominate my flag. Same turn I forgot to leach, both my beasts frenzied. Oh well.
My team lost.
Game 2: Retribution
Did you know Helios can pull Rasheth 9" across the board?
I do, now!
I lose top of 2. Started with a solid opening, managed to wipe out most of his infantry and get a bloodmark onto Helios. I just needed to pad the fat man a bit better.
I go to sleep for about 15 hours.
Master of scrubbing out
Woo, masters!
Game 1: Circle
I drop, you guessed it, Rasheth into Wurmwood. I figure between castigate, the ranged threat and arcing from my side, and just the general ease at which my infantry shoot down warpwolves that this shouldn't be too bad a matchup for me.
Top of 1 he moves up defensively behind a treeline from his sentry stones. I lob a few scathers, lucky deviations let me put some serious damage into his argus and a warpwolf. Rasheth throws out 2 BoCs into his sentry stones, blowing 1 up and covering his forests with clouds of acid. Environmentalists everywhere shed tears without knowing why.
He comes up hard to his flag, throwing up spiny growth and feating, and shooting down my infantry with Wyrds to fill up on souls.
I run a few guys to contest and for arcing purposes and I counterfeat. This is a bad plan, as my artillery and infantry cannot take advantage of it.
He clears his flag, and starts scoring. I'm having trouble keeping infantry alive near it, and my bugs are too slow to get in there.... eventually I get one in range, and he shifts focus to my flag. At this point he has 2 wyrds, a pureblood and Ghetorix left, we're at 4-0, me losing. Both my bugs have been hit by stranglehold and have shifting stones sitting on him, I have a flayer cannon and a catapult left as well. Flayer shoots down his pureblood. Catapult aims and lobs a shot at a shifting stone, needing a 6. Misses.
Rasheth walks up and lobs a BoC at a shifting stone, boosts damage... no damage. I throw a boosted sunder spirit at it and pop it... The clear bug now lobs a boosted shot at ghetorix, missing. I boost blast into him, doing almost nothing. My other bug angry-punches the shifting stone.
I had hoped I could clear both bugs off. A direct hit onto Gheto would've dropped him most likely, and I'd have had more stuff to work with in breaking down the wyrds (like... Rasheth). Oh well, Ghetorix runs to the flag. He goes to 5. I am out.
Was a really great game into a really nice guy. I never felt like I was entirely out of it, and even despite some big mistakes (my feat...) I still saw where a bit of luck would've pulled my ass back out of the fire. I think the matchup is better than it looks from this, and would gladly drop this list into any circle matchup, I think.
Game 2: Menoth
Might as well get another one in. Don't want to screw my last opponent out of SoS by dropping after 1 game, and I'm still having a ton of fun.
My opponent has just lost to Jason Belsha's immortal spam list (This man had an amazing showing, taking 2nd overall in Masters), and decides to try some Kreoss1 into me. He has Idrians + UA, Eye of Truth, flare heavy jack, Rhoven, Choire, some other support stuff, and 2 lights that lob AOE's.
He runs up Idrians and does Go To Ground. Again, blast immunity.
I move up slingers, walk some bugs up and blast his Idrians with boosted to hit shots, killing 2 and blocking a lot of his front with scathers. Rasheth blasts a few more, as does Marketh, with BoC. He is now staring at a wall of clouds and scathers.
Idrians move up and pop some shots and try to contest. He throws a few AOE's at me that do minimal work. I clear both flags and control for 2 points, and lob 2 catapult shots into his armory for a 3rd point.
He decides to go all in, pops feat, and throws up immunity to non-magic shooting before throwing Eye of Truth into my army as well as his other heavy. They kill some infantry and lock down a flag... mostly. The few surviving Idrians move to contest the other flag.
I counter feat, blood mark Eye of Truth, and an extoller throws magic weapons onto a flayer cannon. Dice off 2, I roll 4 shots. It takes out the eye's movement and Cortex. My opponent concedes. Sounds like he'd been having an off weekend, but he was pretty great about everything and despite being in a bad mood he was incredibly friendly. Would play again A+.
Conclusions:
Don't play a tournament on 45 minutes of sleep. Monster is not a substitute for food and sleep. Never rely on blast immunity or armor to keep you safe.
My Rasheth list, though, takes advantage of some of the best aspects of the errata. Scathers, AD slingers, and combined arms on the reivers really make this list work. Add in the extra arcing from Rasheth and it winds up projecting a lot of threat and locking down large areas of the table. The paingivers never really did anything, though, so I'm going to drop them for a second extoller and a willbreaker. Later on the breaker will probably become a Dakar, once that model drops.
Someone asked what the playstyle of Skorne is, now, and my response was "Aggressive denial". We don't tell you "No", we don't take your actions. We just make you pay for them. DIYD playstyle is here, and I love it. We might get hit in the face, but to do so you're going to have to go through hell and back. I named this blog because the style I found that worked at the start of MK3 was about shoving things across the board as far as I could, and giving my opponent a nightmare of a turn order puzzle. This does the same thing, except instead of troops it projects scathers and clouds of acid. Sure, I may not be to that area of the board yet, but I can damned well keep my opponent from setting anything into it.
Really glad to see that Skorne was doing well across the US, at CaptainCon and LVO. It's an exciting time to be playing, and I'm really looking forward to my next big event this spring at the SOO.
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