I was playing pMorghoul for this event, with the following list:
pMorghoul
* Bronzeback
* Titan Gladiator
* Titan Cannoneer
* Cyclops Shaman
* Cyclops Brute
* Rhinodon
Agonizer
Orin Midwinter
Master tormentor
Extoller soulward
Max Beasthandlers
Min Beasthandlers
Round 1
(Sorry, no picture for this round)
For the first round I ended up paired with an interesting eDenny list. I had only played against eDenny once before this weekend, but I knew how hard her feat could be on Skorne. I had also never seen a list quite like this one, so I was a bit worried. his list (from memory) was:
eDenny
* nightmare
* 2 arc nodes
skarlock thrall
Rorsh/Brine
Wrong Eye/ Snapjaw
Gerlack slaughterborn
min bloodgorgers
2 pistol wraiths
warwitch siren
He had the first turn, and just ran forward. on my first turn, I made sure to get Morghoul out of the killbox (would suck to get stuck out of killbox on turn 2) and moved things up. I spread out a little and got in range of the zone. my cannoneer got eyeless sight/magical weapons from the soulward and took a random shot at a pistol wraith but missed.
On his turn 2, everything moved up, but I hadn't really given him any targets for the turn. things just got ready to assault me next turn, and denegra feated. My half of the turn was very uneventful, as everyone just stood there. magical weapons went on the cannoneer again who killed the pistol wraith. the shaman aimed a shot at Denny and hit her with a boosted shot, but did only a few points of damage.
turn 3 is where things got interesting. the bloodgorgers charged and killed my shaman, opening a hole for denegra. Denegra then charged Morghoul. I had never seen eDenny played like this, the only other time I played her she sat as far back as possible. Morghouls high defense won out, and Denny missed 4 boosted to hit rolls in a row, needing 11s. had she hit with one of those shots, it would have teleported Morghoul out into the open, where he would be charged by everything out there. After Denny whiffed, he sent in Nightmare, who managed to also get into melee range. He missed both of his attacks, needing 7s to hit with prey. nothing else was really in range to hurt morghoul, so the rest of his army did some damage elsewhere. He may have killed my Rhinodon, I'm not sure.
With that failed assassination run, eDenegra was sitting right in the middle of my army. the brnzeback turned around and missed all of his attacks. The gladiator turned around and hit with a fully boosted attack and killed her.
Skorne Victory
This round was very different than what I expected. it was an interesting list with 2 lesser warlocks and a bunch of other interesting models. I didn't really know what to expect, and definitely didn't expect Denegra charging all by herself. if she had hit, it might have been game, putting Morghoul right in front of Nightmare, Snapjaw, and Brine with only one transfer and no Admonition.
Lessons from this game: make sure you read the other caster's card. I didn't know about her teleporting ability, or I might have at least tried to defend against it. I got lucky that it didn't work. Also, assassination runs with your caster are very risky. you can always flub some rolls, and it WILL cost you the game. this is one of the big reasons I haven't had much success with casters that like to do it all themselves. I prefer to sit back and do the attrition game.
Round 2
for the next round, I drew a pDoomshaper list with a
pDoomshaper
* Mulg
* Mauler
* EBDT
* Axer
Janessa
Troll Moses
Runeshapers
Scouts
max krielstone
It must have had something else as well, but that is all I remember from the game. we both lined up centrally, with his scouts on my right flank. we both made pretty cautious advances on turn 1. His scouts got closer, but not in charge range, and everything else advanced and bricked up with the krielstone and a wall from Janessa. Everything got the Earthborn's animus. I moved up out of his charge range, sending the rhinodon and cannoneer towards the scouts, everything else advanced slowly.
His turn 2 was more positioning, and then pDoomshaper feated (d6 damage for every Fury point spent or forced). everything bricked up again. the scouts charged my cannoneer and did some damage. his runeshapers moved up, but got themselves in Orin's no magic zone, so they didn't get to do anything.
on my turn 2, I tried to clear the scouts, but they made a bunch of tough rolls. I killed one runeshaper with my shaman, but it cost me a fury and d6 damage. my bronzeback charged his Mauler, and almost killed it, but the EBDT's animus and the krielstone kept it alive. I feated on my turn as well, and got the agonizer up to lower his strength.
Now he had a slow turn like my turn 2. my feat plus the agonizer and orin meant there wasn't much he could do for a turn. he did kill the Bronzeback with Mulg, and the krielstone moved up. I think he might have killed my shaman this turn as well.
I realized at this point that there was no way this game was ending on assassination. Doomie was up on a hill with a wall in front of him, and Morghoul was staying back on my side. we both had 3 heavies left, and no real way of getting through the effective +2 armor on both sides. So I switched to deathclock mode, and took a quick turn. I killed the rest of his scouts, the mauler, and the axer then put my protective bubbles back up.
 |
| the scrum at the end of the game. no way to get to doomie |
In his turn, his krielstone bearers actually charged, killing a paingiver and Orin. He finished off my cannoneer, and may have killed my rhinodon as well. We were trying to play fast at this point, and I didn't care about casualties at this point in the game. when he flipped it back to me he had less than a minute left. I took a quick turn, killing off a few krielstone bearers and putting some damage on Mulg with my soulward and gladiator, but I don't remember if that killed him. He timed out during his next turn, ending the game
Skorne Victory
This was a very slow game. both of us had armies that were good at surviving and wearing down the other guy. our two feats and protective bubbles jammed things up badly. it took 2 whole turns for anything to really engage, and then the next two turns were very ineffective due to feats. It was a really interesting game. I don't think there was really any other way for this one to have ended.
Lessons learned in this one: don't play your beasts spread out with Morghoul. with his small control area, beasts need to stay very close if they're going to be protected by the feat turn. if I hadn't been as aggressive with my Bronzeback, he probably wouldn't have died, and that would have been a huge factor in the attrition game.
Round 3
I had already done better than I had hoped for my first hardcore, going 2-0. I was starting to feel good about my list and how I was doing in the tournament. My next match would send me right back down where I belonged. Round three I played against Hollywood, with his eLich list
eLich
* Deathjack
* Arc Node
Bane thralls with UA
Bane Knights
Tartarus
full Raiders with UA
Withershadow Combine
This is a bad matchup for Morghoul. lots of infantry, nothing that really uses Focus to shut down on the feat turn, and my main anti-infantry was all anatomical precision stuff that hates to see Banes on the other side of the field.
 |
| Hollywood's Cryx |
Turn 1 all of his stuff ran. I moved up and took a random potshot with my cannoneer, not killing anything. I misjudged the threat range on his Bane Knights. I forgot all about Curse giving them extra movement, and forgot they had ghostly. My Rhinodon was a little too far forward because I had put him behind a nice-looking wall.
So on his turn 2, the Bane Knights on the right flank took down my Rhinodon easily, killing my only non-anatomical anti infantry piece. my cannoneer was also a little too far up, and barely survived a charge from power-swelled raiders.
On my turn 2, I was trying to do damage control but also panicked a little bit with the loss of my main plan for clearing banes. My master tormentor did her job well, killing 4 or 5 raiders. paingivers took down one more. my shaman killed tartarus and one bane knight, and orin killed a bane thrall. My bronzeback moved up and killed a few banes, but wasn't able to beat-back through as many as I had planned. now he was too far forward. I put admonition on him.
On turn 3, Admonia just walked up and dropped admonition, and the bronzeback went down to a sea of bane thralls. my shaman took some bane knights to the face and died. Orin and a few paingivers followed shortly. the raiders whiffed their attacks on my master tormentor, and the cannoneer was a lot harder to damage without a charge and power swell.
on my turn 3, I killed all but one or two bane knights, a few bane thralls, and finished off the raiders. he was running low on infantry but it didn't matter too much since I was down to a few hit points on my cannoneer, a gladiator, a brute and morghoul. Morghoul started a retreat while the others moved up to try for some damage. the cannoneer took a shot at eLich and did a point or two of damage.
his turn 4 was cleanup. he killed my gladiator with deathjack, my cannoneer with thralls, my mastertormentor died to something, and my brute barely survived.
Morghoul ran and hid with admonition on.
on turn 5, admonia walked up to morghoul and stripped his admonition. eLich walked up and feated, bringing back 8 knights, the thrall officer and tartarus. he then teleported away. Tartarus charged, rolled high on his attack roll and killed morghoul in one shot. I had one paingiver left on the table at the end of the game. this was the worst loss I've had since learning the game... it was pretty humbling.
Victory Cryx
Lessons learned: watch the threat ranges. I lost 2 heavies up front for little to no gain. Keep your important stuff back for a wave 2, not the first strike. the Rhinodon should have hidden behind something else. might have even been a good idea to put the gladiator or cannoneer up where they could be charged and have the rhinodon ready to walk into that space and thresher. might have made a difference. Also, I shouldn't have wasted my bronzeback. he got up too far and died easily after I got greedy with beat back. I learned a lot in this one. it was a good game, but I got creamed.
Round 4
Next up I played one of the guys from the Texas Renegades. He was playing a pFeora list:
Feora
* 2 Reckoners
* Redeemer
Avatar of Menoth
min Choir
max Errant with UA
Covenant of Menoth
2 Vassals
Visgoth Roven and Honor Guard
Wracks
Pretty standard Menoth list. I was feeling good about my chances, as I usually don't have too much trouble facing Menoth. I at least have more of a plan when facing them than I did against my Cryx opponent...
he set up with Feora on my far left flank near the zone I had to capture, redeemer next to her followed by the other jacks in a line with support behind them. Roven and the honor guard deployed across from the zone he was trying to capture, with Errant in front of them in AD. I deployed in a brick with my beasts all deployed centrally, with the rhinodon towards the forest where I thought (correctly) the errants would set up. all the support was behind the heavies.
turn 1 I ran everythign and got into position. he moved everything up, sending a few errants up to jam and holding the rest back. he took some long range assault shots with the reckoners that did a little damage to my gladiator. his redeemer shot a few rockets that set my gladiator on fire, but didn't really do anything else since it was all blast damage.
on my turn, I decided to do something crazy and tried to get those reckoners. My cannoneer killed the two errants that had engaged him, leaving one errant in the advance force. my rhinodon moved up the flank towards the rest of that unit. my shaman moved up and took a pot shot at the redeemer, doing very little damage. My gladiator pushed my bronzeback an inch. Morghoul charged the last errant, killing him, then gave rush and abuse to the Bronzeback, upkeeping admonition on the bronzeback and stealing a fury from the cannoneer. he then sprinted up the field enough that the bronzeback could be in control when he charged. the bronzeback got enraged and then charged a reckoner. he got a great damage roll, and the reckoner enlivened to right behind him. he used beat back to get to the other reckoner, doing a bout half the reckoners boxes with one pow 21 hit. that reckoner enlivened away too far for me to reach it again. the bronzeback went back to the first one and scrapped it in two more hits. it wasn't a terrible trade, but there was a lot of stuff near Big B, and the reckoner had enlivened to a spot with a clear lane to Morghoul...
on his turn he put 3 focus on the reckoner and 3 on the redeemer. I saw the nice line he had to my caster, and was forced to use the Bronzeback's admonition to put him in that lane. The reckoner ended up charging my gladiator, killing it. the avatar then killed my bronzeback. the redeemer set a few things on fire. the errants shot their crossbows at my rhinodon, doing about half it's boxes.
on my turn, I had the rhinodon charge the remaining errants (after shooting one of them to open a nice hole in the center). his thresher killed all but one, and a bought attack finished the job. morghoul killed one of the honor guard and sprinted back a little bit, feating to prevent the avatar from running around wild in my lines. the agonizer moved up behind the reckoner and kept him pinned down. the shaman did a little damage ot it as well.
his turn wasn't real eventful. his avatar hung back instead of throwing it into the feat. the reckoner did nothing without focus, doing a small amount to the shaman. the redeemer shot more rockets. so far the fires had all gone out on everything except the gladiator who wasn't taking damage from it.
on my turn, I killed the book with morghoul, then sprinted away, the agonizer spent another point to pin the reckoner down. the rhinodon and cannoneer charged the avatar, knocking him down to 2 boxes. unfortunately one of those was a sword arm box. I looked down at the clock and realized I hadn't been watching it! I only had 5 seconds left and flipped the clock. I should have just called it there. on his turn, his killed both of my remainign heavies with the avatar then flipped it back to me ending the game.
Victory Menoth
lessons learned: watch the clock! I had a turn where I tried to do too much (when I charged the reckoners) that wasted a lot of time. Can't do that in hardcore. I hadn't even looked at my clock until it was too late. I should have realized early on that there was no way to kill feora. she was behind a wall barely inside the killbox, camping focus and hiding. I should have been playing for time the whole game. he ended with only a minute or two on his clock, so a bit more time management instead of going in for a kill may have own me the game.
Round 5
My last round of the day was against a circle player. he had Kromac:
Kromac
* Ghetorix
* Stalker
* Pureblood
* Gorax
Blackclad
2 woldstalker units
2 sets of shifting stones
swamp gobbers
Gallows Grove
Druid Wilder
both of us ran up on turn 1. on the top of 2, I tried a shot at one of his stones, but didn't kill it. I moved everything up, and had admonition on the bronzeback. too late, I realized that wasn't going to be super helpful.
On his turn 2, he teleported his pureblood up, and sprayed off a few of my paingivers, barely missing my Soulward. his Gorax put his animus on ghetorix, who was then teleported right in front of my Bronzeback. He easily scrapped the Bronzeback, but it cost him all four fury. the stalker then charged my gladiator, but didn't manage to kill it. He did clear out the zone, so he moved kromac into his own zone, but somehow forgot to get rid of his fury. he was camping 4 or 5 fury, and all of his beasts had fury all over them. I think he thought I would make a run at Kromac? he did score a point this turn.
On my turn, I decided to try to capitalize on the fury management mistakes. the agonizer cried -2 threshold to try to get a few frenzies. the cannoneer walked up to Ghetorix and headbutted him down, and hit him for a bit of damage after that. the soulward took a shot at a knocked down ghetorix, getting a shot at dice +2. I rolled badly, only getting 7 damage. I moved a paingiver into base contact with ghetorix so he would be forced to hit it with his frenzy attack.
on his turn, ghetorix smashed my paingiver. his pureblood frenzied, charging ghetorix in the back and almost killing him. the stalker frenzied and killed a stone, I think. the gorax didn't frenzy. all the frenzy issues threw him off a little bit I think. He spent a long time thinking about his next turn. in the end, he almost cleared my zone for another point, knocking my brute and gladiator down to a few boxes each and killing my rhinodon with wold shrimp. on my turn I just jammed the zone, killed ghetorix and passed it back to him. He ran out of time on his turn
 |
| End of the game. would have possibly had a shot at kromac if the game had continued |
Victory Skorne
this one was a rough game. I made a few mistakes and was losing the attrition battle. I lucked out with him leaving so much fury on the table, and then him taking too long on his turn and timing out. I really need to be more careful with my bronzeback. he died in every round in this tournament. I have come to realize that I rely way too much on admonition to keep him safe. I might even be better off running some swordsmen in a morghoul list just to act as a speedbump. something to absorb a charge so I don't lose heavies so early in a game. it's worth looking into.
So with that, I finished the day at 3-2. not bad for my first hardcore tournament! deathclock was rough. 3 of my 5 games ended on deathclock. I like the intensity of the shorter clock, but winning or losing on the clock isn't nearly as fun as playing normally. At the end of the day my brain was almost dead. it was rough to keep that kind of mental pace for an entire day. that 53 minute clock for the masters was looking really good at this point...
I'll be posting some masters reports tomorrow or the next day. stay tuned!
Good write up..look forward to seeing the rest. Deathclock def adds another consideration to list build and play style:) TorkaThor
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