RHGC Gamesday

June 11 found us with a moved holiday. Sending the RHGC sponsor and founder Oberon to give us a successful gamesday. It seems that warmachine is getting a pretty large player base and is actually getting more people into the game.

It is, after all, a game so much better than any in it's genre. So much similar to the much maligned mageknight and yet unlimited in it's complexity.

We had 12 players joining the tournament. Sadly we didn't have a showing of the top menoth player.

The game was pegged for duels (350 points) which made it really unbalanced for a majority of the players. Knowing that our scenarios won't be the usual SR tournament format, and wouldn't be having caster kill by any long shot, it was quite clear to me that we would be handling scenarios from either the hordes book or the prime: remix book.

I had a choice of fielding either a cryxian assassination with Deneghra or the usual Sorscha list.

I'm stuck with playing cryx for the current tournament league for the coin series. And had a relatively bad showing with the cryx, given my major inexperience with assassination spell runs.

The cryxian list was:

Deneghra
Deathripper
Defiler x2
Nightwretch x2
Skarlock
Necrotech
Pistol Wraith

It would have been a good list, given that there were limited threats on the table and this list could easily bypass most, if not handle all, possible lists. It would work great if we had caster kill and it wouldn't suck as much in a mangled metal scenario.

The khador list:

Sorscha
Drakhun + unmounted option
Mortar x2
Manhunter
Widowmakers
Eiryss
Alexia Ciannor

This list would be unbeatable in 350. It simply had too many threats. It would just steamroll the cryxian list. It would be sick. It would be something I wouldn't be calling a game, but a hustle.

But considerations were thrown out the window when I realized, I got my butt kicked by a scenario win the first tournament, a missed VP from a double critical miss the second tournament.

By god I think it's time to remind people why Sorscha is broken.


First Round:
Pendulum - hordes book
vs Ashlynn (Pork)
The game was held in 40k terrain, which meant it would greatly reduce the possibility of freezing the entire army. Pork did bring a decent list, with a single warjack which meant losing a caster could actually mean little. I just could not agree on the choice of bringing 2 bokurs over taking a squad of stealheads + rhupert. List was:

Ashlynn
Mule
Eiryss
Alexia
Ogrun Bokur x2

He deployed first placing eiryss far down the left side, with the bulk of all the other troops on the right. The game broke down when I was moving my entire army forward towards the right flank with Alexia heading left to support the manhunter that was watching over his eiryss. He had made the mistake of trying to gun down my eiryss running on the right flank with ashlynn herself. It left her in LOS. I figured he might opt to use risen to shield her from LOS and the woosh. Lucky me I guess. Next turn woosh. Game ended with ashlynn getting razor winded by sorscha (after charging a bokur), disrupted by eiryss, bombed by a mortar, and shot by widowmakers. Alexia went down next turn. Pretty much nothing else left.

Second Round:
Killing fields - hordes book
vs Makeda (ronald)
My condolences go out to my opponent. I got first turn in this broken scenario.

Makeda
Cannoneer
Krea
Drake
Paingivers (4)

He shot my drakhun so I ended up charging it. Went for an early woosh as the terrain was bad, and it found him with most of his models still in the deployment zone. He tend to play defensively, hence the ease with which the scenario win was pulled off. Over in the usual 3 turns.

Third Round:
Domination - warmachine remix
vs Baldur?! (chris)
For some weird reason he didn't use kreuger. Actually I think baldur was actually a better option for the 350 games, with the expectation of some people opting for the I-big-and-no-touch-me option.

Baldur
Woldwarden x2
Shifting Stones x2

Strange enough the scenario called for 8 rounds. I've never had a game last that long-EVER. so the scenario will never come into play for this scenario. For some strange reason, chris prefers to bunch up his woldwardens together with his caster near the forest edges. I assume he likes the concealment it provides while pathfinder and all terrain gives him more options than I would ever have. What he didn't know about was what sorscha was capable of doing. He was pretty much distracted by the large model drakhun. He spent much of his fury points trying to block charge lanes from it. Critical to the pre-woosh turn was he had decided to cast stone skin on a woldwarden. It left him with only 2 fury left after casting that and the I-make-forests spell. the big light bulb just went on in my head and I just had to do the run. One boosted shot, boosted razor wind, 2 mortar hits and paralytic fear later, baldur was sent to his tomb of foam. The elemental constructs had sustain enough damage from the transfer to make them pretty easy to take out with a drakhun and a crazy manhunter.

Round Four:
Domination
vs thagrosh (Dan) - of course, who else was much more of a cheater than I there?
For some unfortunate reason, he had to roll domination. Nine points on the table--he had four models. I had more risen than his entire model count, that was pretty much it.

Thagrosh
Carnivean x2
Shredder




Problem with playing sorscha is that it pretty much leaves a bitter aftertaste to anyone who faces it or uses it. I'm pretty much sick of the woosh (and the frowns it causes) and I'm so used to seeing the paths to assassination with a woosh measure that it is nearly automatic. It makes me suck when I try cryxian runs. I cannot adjust to the limited range of deneghra's feat. I simply cannot time deneghra's withering. Sorscha has made me stupid. She's a crutch, I think anyone can actually try her and win the first time around. Just that do not expect anyone else to want to play you again.