Road to Adepticon - Open Masters

The second event I will be playing in at Adepticon is the Open Masters. Adepticon is a little different than a lot of the big cons in that the Masters event isn't an invitational. In most of these big tournaments, you have to place in one of the other events (steamroller, hardcore, sometimes a special tournament) in order to compete in the Masters. Luckily for people like me who have little to no shot at placing in an event, Adepticon still lets us play in the masters.

The event is a 6-round 3-list event. All of the scenarios for 2012 are fair game, which means we will be playing one of each type of mission. The three lists each have to be used exactly twice, so I have to be careful not to rely too heavily on a single list.

in this article, I will go over my basic strategy for the event, and talk about which casters I will be using. I'll have a few more articles leading up to Adepticon talking about my other lists for the Masters, and talking about the team event.




There are a lot of possible ways to go about choosing your lists for a three list event. I don't have enough experience with these large tournaments (this will be my first...) to know what the winning strategy is. Some people will have an anti-infantry, and anti-heavy and a mixed list. some would go with anti-hordes, anti-warmachine, and a balanced list. or you could go scenario, assassination and attrition. I thought about each of these, and ended up just going with what felt most comfortable.

My three casters will be eMakeda, eHexeris and pMorghoul. Morghoul is my anti-heavy/anti-hordes list, Hexeris is my anti-warmachine list. and Makeda is there as my "problem solver" list. if there's a list that I don't like with either of my other casters, Makeda is a nice strong, balanced caster. and she's darn fast, which means against a rough opponent I can just try for a fast assassination and hope for the best.

The three casters

I haven't played all of Skorne's casters yet, but these three are probably my favorite. Naaresh was also in contention to play as my heavy hitter, but I am way more confident with Morghoul. eMakeda has been growing on me in the last few months. I used pMakeda a lot when I started out, but I am starting to see why most people rank her epic version as our strongest caster. and then there's eHexeris. he is a blast to play, and gives us something we've been lacking. black spot and ashes to ashes are murder against infantry. his feat is great for a spell assassination run, and Vampiric Harvest is way more powerful than I expected it to be.

My first list (Morghoul) is also my Hardcore list. I found a list I like, and have gotten to the point where I can use it in a shorter time limit. No need to mess with something that is working.

The Masters event will be using Flank scenarios, so I had to add Morghoul's reinforcements. I'll be adding in an Archidon and a Void spirit. they are both fast and fairly good at flanking and harassing hard targets. The archidon is going to end up being a one-shot missile, charging into something important when he comes on the board, and then either dying or frenzying, since I doubt Morghoul will get it into his control range fast enough. the Void Spirit is great for contesting objectives, especially against lists that lack magical weapons. he also causes terror, so he could potentially break another flnaking force or a unit holding a point, which buys me more time. I actually haven't played any flank scenarios yet, so this one is a bit of a gamble.

I have finally finished painting the entire force, though, so even if I lose horribly my army will look good while they die. here is the first of the group shots, Morghoul and his big beasts.

50 points, minimal infantry

I'm looking forward to getting these on the table at Adepticon. I am hoping to have some fun games, win or lose. It's coming up fast, and I still have a handful of bases to get done before then!