GenCon - Batreps and Afterthoughts on Skorne

Prologue~

In the beginning...

I kinda thought I wouldn't do so great at GenCon. I went into it hoping to dick around with new themes, however, and brought a bunch of models that I didn't end up using. Yes - the Skorne book release was disappointing. I did, however, write my lists at 8:30 am for the first tournament, which started at 9am. This may have been a mistake, but my initial poor showing was definitely not a list issue.

Note: I will be doing battle breakdowns, but I'm going to keep them short. I played 15 or so games, and while I don't have pictures for all of them even the ones I do make this a bit of a slog. I'll go into  afterthoughts on where we stand currently afterwards.

Champions Tournament, Morghoul3, GenCon Prep

My last post mentioned a list of tournaments I had coming up, and the first of those came to pass this Saturday. It was a ton of fun with a lot of great people, and the TO from Rochester, NY came down to run it to make sure I could play - so Thanks a ton to Gail for all of her help (those on the West Coast might know her from her role as TO at KingdomCon).

I brought Morghoul3, and of course Xekaar, as my pairing. I haven't gotten much practice in with M3, since he's a bit infuriating to play into unless you're ready for it, and as such I wanted to get as much practice in with him as possible....

So, the list!

https://conflictchamber.com/#c9201bhS6U4x4C6N6vcvfF6C5V6c6d6hhV

Skorne Army - 75 / 75 points

(Morghoul 3) Dominar Morghoul & Escorts [+25]
 - Archidon [10]
 - Basilisk Krea [7]
 - Cyclops Shaman [8]
 - Aptimus Marketh [5]
Extoller Soulward [3]
Mortitheurge Willbreaker [4]
Swamp Gobber Chef [1]
Nihilators (max) [15]
Paingiver Beast Handlers (max) [7]
Praetorian Swordsmen (max) [13]
 - Praetorian Swordsman Officer & Standard [4]
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer [6]
Siege Animantarax [17]

Back from a hiatus, still kinda hate Xekaar

So, you've probably had no idea that I hadn't been updating. Seriously, who checks this with any regularity? But hey, I haven't! So today I've got some updates, and a little batrep where, spoilers, Xekaar dies.

Turns out I got married, and what with the wedding and some followup events I've been kinda swamped. To make up for it, though, and start my marriage off on a rocky footing I have one hell of a WM/H month planned coming up....

Looking Back on GenCon

Well, I went to GenCon. I played a total of 13 games at various events there, and wound up with the not-so-stellar record of 6-7 overall, with three of those wins coming from Saturday's Champions event. 3-6 in the IG and Master's heats, which was educational, at the very least. I will say this, though, that with the exception of Hexeris 1 who I only played once and with a subpar list, I never felt that any of our warlocks were bad, nor did I dislike the performance of any of our models. None of my losses came down to dice, but rather simply to being outplayed.

I am a rather new player who, through a tendency towards obsessiveness and proclivity towards quick learning got pretty decent, fast. I still make plenty of mistakes when it comes to threat recognition and target selection, and on scenario play. At GenCon, a small number of mistakes was enough to put me in the lower tier, easily, and playing against and watching high-level players was an unusual experience, like finding out that I've been playing this game in the dark the entire time and discovering there is a light switch on the wall. Maybe next year I'll bring a headlamp, and in a few years I'll figure out where the g'd light switch is, but at least now I'm aware that there is one.

Below I'm going to run through some of the models I ran and my experiences with them. Most of these did not see a ton of games, but I brought most of them because I had a positive experience with them previously and thought they were worth the trip.

Trial by Fire and Making the Cut For GenCon

GenCon:
I'm heading out to GenCon tomorrow, and have been trying to lock in a few caster pairings for it. Right now I'm most comfortable and experienced with pXerxis and Mordikaar, but I wanted more variety in case my pairing flops. I've gotten a few more games in with Mordikaar, and he's definitely going to be my drop into Ret, maybe Cygnar, as very few points worth of his army can wipe out significant chunks of theirs, and my lists with him should be stealth and def 17 on the approach. He might also have to go into Khador if I see Irusk on the other side, but I don't really see him as a Skorne drop, both of my lists should have enough beef that I don't have to be afraid of his infantry. pXerxis seems to be able to handle heavy beast and jack lists, with quite a bit of survivability.

Things I'm worried about:

High value shooting - Beasts and jacks capable of lobbing multiple boosted ranged attacks. Xerxis wants to deliver his Ferox for a crippling alpha, and while my threat ranges are insane I'm worried about dropping into Legion where I might lose 2-3 Ferox on the approach. Really takes the wind out of my alpha strike. Some Cygnar lists can also do this, though they don't scare me quite as much after facing down an eCaine jack heavy list at the WMW qualifier.

Undead Infantry (or Construct infantry) - Really makes Voids and Blood Runners lose a lot of value. Essence blast is still good at clearing them, but I'm not sure I want to drop Mordikaar into Cryx if I see a bunch of banes in one list.

Solutions - Nihilators still hit hard enough and accurate enough to mulch banes. Tibbers can rip through huge swathes of them as well, but my pXerxis list lacks a gladiator. A few cannoneers can shore this up, and still threaten heavies and assassination, making it harder for my opponent to shoot me up. 

I've been toying with eXerxis, as I switched to him for my JML at week 4, and decided to see how much shooting he can handle. So far I've dropped him into Cryx, Trolls (twice), Circle, and last night I asked a friend of mine to drop his best Ossyan list ideas into me. I will say that he is in no way a drop into a shooting army, but for combined arms or melee I think he is ideal. The idea is long threatening reach heavies that, on feat, can either crack arm or take out large swaths of infantry and help me get board control.