Crucible2 Battle Reports

WOW! Let me start by saying “What a weekend!” 16 games of Warmachine/Hordes in a 44 hours period is CRAZY! Normally my body would have shut down, but the energy of the event and the vibe from all the good people fueled me through the intense and competitive gaming marathon. HAD A BLAST! So GLAD to get (some) memory of all 16 games back – it’s amazing what a good night of sleep will do for you.

Red Skies @ Night
For the 35 point hardcore, I went with my Mortenebra Tier 4 list. With only 9 activations, I felt comfortable running it on 5 minute turns and with 5 heavies I had plenty of hitting power and enough metal to hide behind for a turn or two.

Master Necrotech Mortenebra + Deryliss (Deathjack, Harrower, Slayer (x3), War Witch Siren (x2))

Game 1 vs. Tom Keegan’s Trolls and eDoomy.
5 Heavies vs. 3 living heavies and a light – the exact matchup my list is designed for. Tom pushed Mulg way up to threaten Morty, but I just left him there while I took out his Bouncer with the Harrower and Slayers to overrun a fully loaded Deathjack into the Troll shaman. Tom was surprised that I could put 5 foci on Mr. DJ….. now he knows.

Game 2 vs. Kyle’s Menoth and Kross3
Kyle had a standard 35 point list with plenty of infantry. Should be much easier to trigger the overrun….. or so I thought. Made a savy play (pun intended) to put overrun on the Warwitch and targeted my Jack to get a cheap overspray kill on a Daughter of Flame, but my dice said NO! Adjusted and took some losses and Kyle took a D stand way in back. Tried again next turn, but had to trample what was once a clear lane. Lost initials, fully camped cav caster, and some cold dice left him with 2. Kyle charged Kross in to Slaghterborn (millimeter close), which got him close enough to hit Morty hiding behind and she was trashed.

Game 3 vs. Andrew’s Cygnar and Epic stryker
I was setting up my run on the bottom of turn two when I learned the hard way that you need to call your extension BEFORE, and not AT the buzzer. Fortunately I was out of range, but I did loose Deathjack the next turn. Made a run on turn 3 with a Slayer, but again the high camp plus some cold dice and Stryker was left with 2. Died next turn on the counter attack. Andrew’s first victory over me would probably hold more weight with me if he didn’t feel the need to punk me on the extension turn rule to make it so.

Game 4 vs. Matthew’s Cryx and pGaspy
The one thing you don’t want to see with Morty is an undead caster with an undead army. While I still get to overrun, all of my bonuses speed and free boosting vs. living is gone. Matt took some odd angles with the terrain which let me take ownership of the middle. Forced to move out of the killbox puts Gaspy too close to Deathjack range, and we all know how that ends. Picked up neat trick from Matt for using parasite.

Game 5 vs. Jeff’s Menoth and pSevy
I knew I would get a crash course in Menoth this weekend. Second matchup with the church knights and congregation. Plenty of infantry again in this list. Everything looks PERFECT for my run at the bottom of two. I walk up to repair the Harrower and fail. It wasn’t critical to get the repair, but for some reason this flustered me into a huge mistake of checking my cards and then moving on before I pop feat or cast terminal velocity. Brain meltdown. Run fails. Played it out in theory and I had it by a mile – but in the real world this one goes to Jeff on a silver platter with a bow.

I think it was about 12:15 or so at this point. I start to play some version of checker bocce ball (Kraken?) with Craig and some others and BAM – it’s 2am. I’ll pay for that loss of sleep.

Reville
Fueled up on free apple jacks and blueberry waffles, I’m ready to qualify early and get some extra rest before Sunday. Looking forward to death-clock, where I won’t need to play as quickly as Hardcore. I borrowed a raider brick from Craig (THANKS AGAIN!) and ran and eGaspy with pSkarre (replaced Morty 8 Heavy T4 list).

eGaspy (Deathjack, Skarlock, max Knights, min Thralls+UA, min Biles, BLT, Slaughterborn, Pistol Wraithx2, Bloatx2, Saxon Orrik)
pSkarre (Seether, Nightwrenchx2, skarlock, max Knights, max Thralls+UA, max Raiders+UA, Raider Captain, Gorman, warwich)

Game 1: eGaspy vs. Gabe’s Menoth and Harby
We spar a couple of turns and Gabe had her too close. I’m ready to make my move. I decide to toy around first to try and pick up more kill points. I hit the enlivened Avatar and he moves out of combat – I do not yet realize that this has trashed my run. I charge out and pop feat; but my spawn spot is now too close to, and within sight of the Avatar. Now required to go at the Jack – I start to beat on it. I try to save BLT, but I run out of Knights he is not blocking. BLT gets the last box on Avatar, but with only 2 knights left I leave her with a few and die in the counter strike. DON’T FOOL AROUND!

Game 2: eGaspy vs. RyanC’s Circle and eKrueger
Ryan immediately tells me how he has never beat Cryx, and I’m thinking this is a good thing. Well he must have poker played me into over confidence. I was completely in control when I moved up further in the zone for no reason and proceeded to take a beat down. What a bad time for Ryan to break a perfect record!

Game 3: pSkarre vs. John Vega and Broadside Bart
You don’t pull out 2 Galleon’s unless you plan to use them, so I knew which list John would run. At 0-2 I figure this is a good chance to practice and get experience with pSkarre, plus the backlash option is too easy to pass on. It plays out as expected. Thralls and Raiders are too hard to shoot. I get in and I backlash Bart down to 3 before the first Colossal falls. I win on CP by choice the next turn.

Game 4: eGaspy vs. Jeff’s Menoth and Kreoss3
I’m having a solid spar with Jeff. I’ve got my toe in the zone corner and I’m holding up fine. I creep up to mid zone, perhaps to look at some birds in a nearby forest – because there was no other reason. I error further when I again trigger enliven on a Jack. This lets Jeff position for the win. Next turn I’m eating Jack fists. Twice in 4 games I’m too close for no reason – maybe one day I’ll learn.

Taps
After a short break and some AMAZING BBQ from 4 Rivers (I’m still dreaming of those burn tips and mashed sweet potatoes!), I’m ready to try again to land a coveted Masters slot.
Cut the lists down to 35 as follows:

eLich(Seether, Skarlock, max knight, min thralls+ua, min biles, BLT, slaughterborn)
pSkarre (Nightwrenchx2, skarlock, max Thralls+UA, max Raiders+UA, Raider Captain, Gorman, war witchx2, saxon orrik)

Game 1: eGaspy vs. Fernando’s Legion and pThagrosh
My 2 lists rely on clouds, stealth, and concealment – so Legion was the last thing I wanted to see across from me. I played this way different. No clouds, full camp with hellbound up. Played way back (LEARNING!). Fortunately, Fernando ran an ultra Beast heavy list which left lots of room to slip Bane Knight through the cracks. I made my move to hit Thag behind an obstacle with Knights, but the dice came up a bit short to leave him with 3. Fernando countered with Typhon, but some low rolls and my full camp kept me up with a few as well. Finally ended the back and forth brawl next turn when more Knights arrived on the scene to take out the Prophet. The see-saw battle was intense. This was my favorite game of the weekend.

Game2: eGaspy vs. Jesse’s Retribution and Rhan
I’ve actually played this matchup a few times vs. Paul and so I was pretty aware of where the weak spots were. Seeing Jesse with no Strike Force felt like Christmas as my biles just ran wild. Jesse lacked enough shooting to deal with my infantry horde and I eventually dropped the clouds and over ran him with little issues.

Game3: eGaspy vs. Mahu’s Khador and eSorcha
This one ended pretty quickly. I deploy spread out a bit more than usual to get more angles for the horde to surround Conquest from. I’m moving up into what seems like open green battlefield…. But I get too close. WILL I NEVER LEARN! Mahu made a nice play to put Eiryss into the cloud to get a charge target, and then he moved in with Conquest to one shot the Lich Lord. I’m curious to see Matt’s report for this one to learn how it went down from his perspective.

Game4: eGaspy vs. Max’s Trollbloods and pDoomy
Well I was almost too close again. Max saw this and made a top of 2nd round run by goading Mulg into melee range with my caster. Fortunately he had only one swing left and I was fully camped to survive. With fortune and the other spells, the troll Shammy was empty. A couple of Seether claws later gave me a collection of troll teeth.

So I just finished 18 straight hour of WarMachine on 4 hours of sleep. I’m giddy for 2nd place! It is 4am and I’m looking at 4 hour of maximum sleep. I carb load on my leftover mac-n-cheese, sweet potatoes, and a biscuit before I crash out for a bit.

I wake at the last moment to get free food. I load my battlefoam, move my stuff to the car, and checkout. With everything handled I can focus on gaming, but I only have 15 minutes to make lists.

THE CRUCIBLE
I make a small adjustments to my eLich and pSkarre list, and decide to Terminus > Mortenebra

eGaspy (Deathjack, Skarlock, max Knights, max Thralls+UA, max Biles, BLT, Slaughterborn, Pistol Wraithx2)
pSkarre (Nightwrenchx2, skarlock, max Knights, max Thralls+UA, max Raiders+UA, max Blackbanes, Raider Captain, Gorman, warwich)
Terminus(Seether, skarlock, max knights, max thralls+UA, max Mechi (should have been min Biles), WSC, Darragh Wrath, MaddyC, Pistol Wraithx2)

Game 1: Terminus vs. Adam’s Khador and eSorcha
I figured Adam would assume eGaspy and so I pulled Terminus. Adam was grinning ear to ear to see no Biles and it proved my downfall. I fail all but 1 tough roll on Adam’s alpha strike. Unable to connect in combat on D14+, my counterstrike fails. I only manage 4 souls on feat turn. I lose more next round and am forced to take a defensive position. I picked what I thought was a safe spot, but Conqest was too close and I was one shot again on feat turn (with 28 armor).

Game2: eGaspy vs. JP’s Cygnar and Siege
I was expecting Epic Haley and had all my slut jokes ready, when JP (expecting Terminus) dropped Siege. Mage site is a big threat, but I was able to keep way back and just work him down with Biles and Banes. The threat from DJ down the flank forced Siege to counter. This opened up the middle for me. Won on control by choice.

Game3: pSkarre vs. Rob’s Menoth and Harby
with very few previous games vs. the church, it’s been a weekend long crash course in Menoth. Fortunately, I learn quickly. Planned very well for his feat turn by just digging in for a round, and survived with minimal losses. I give up 2 CP, but then I hit back on my feat turn like a truck. I surprise Rob with Blackbane’s reanimation of dead errants. Harby has moved to their side, and this has given me the numbers on the key flank. I also backlash a Reckoner until it falls and turn it back to Rob. With my full camp and extra feat armor, I hold up quite well again. Next turn I charge Harby with the Balckbane’s and land a lucky hit for a few more on her focus8 camp. It proved the game winner, as I rolled box cars for my fire damage and killed her in the control phase. Seeing those 2 Cryx logos face up was a PERFECT way to end an excellent weekend!

That battle we had was easily one of my all-time favorites. So was pMakeda and eMakeda against Cory. The second battle the two of us had was pure laughter at the beginning and end when he declared early on he was going to be assassinated with Double 6s crit. I did not disappoint.