Adran Posted December 3, 2014 Report Share Posted December 3, 2014 40 SS Fixed master tournament (I don’t take photos, or notes during the game, so its not going to be as good as AgentBadger, you have been warned. ) My Master choice – Marcus Game 1 VS Stuart playing Dr Mcmorning. Standard deployment, Stake a claim, line in the sand, Entourage, Bodyguard, Distract, something else McMorning, Sebastian Zombie Chuahuahua 2 flesh constructs Hanged 2 cruligans (Distract and Bodyguard on Seb) I chose Marcus with Bonus walk upgrade (one day I will learn the names, today is not that day), Imbuded energies and Arcane reservoir. Cassandra with Imbued energies Silurid Blessed of December with Imbuded energies Jackolope Decembers acolyte The board was an interesting rocky set up with passages under some of the rocks. I lost deployment and set up with Silurdi on my left, Marcus and the Jackolope in the middle and Blessed and Cassandra on my right. The Decembers acolyte was set up just over the half way line but out of line of sight to the enemy deployment zone. After a look at my acolytes card my opponent deployed one of his cruligans next to my acolyte, and the other in my deployment zone, kind of center left. Sebastian and the hanged were set opposite the Silurid, McMorning and The Chuhuaua in the middle and the 2 constructs heading towards my acolyte. First turn starts with the Cruligans. The first one attacked the acolyte, and failed to hurt it, then I charged the Jackolope at the second, failed to kill it, and it attacked back. Decembers acolyte hurt its cruligan, and pushed away to get to shoot at a flesh construct. Marcus finished off one Cruligan, and the Blessed finished the other. Hanged and seb and Silurid all moved closer to each other. McMorning moved towards the middle and moved up a flesh construct, who managed to engage the acolyte. Cassandra ran down her flank to the enemy half. Turn 2 Acolyte was able to slow both Fleshies. Silurid dropped a claim, Cassandra dropped a claim, hanged zapped Marcus to half wounds, so Marcus charged and killed it. McMorning pushed Flesh construct into melee with the acolyte, and hit him a little. Blessed ripped into the engaged flesh construct and then leap away. Other flesh construct went to engage Blessed. Zombie moves up towards Marcus and seb goes after silurid, poisoning it Manges to engage it. 1 point to Marcus from Stake a claim Turn 3 Zombie puts poison on Marcus, who kills it and moves after McMorning. McMornign Drops a claim, and moves over to Marcus to expunge him. I flesh construct attacks the acolyte to near death, and the distracts him. The Acolyte kills the construct in return. The other flesh construct distracts the Blessed. Who leaps away and loses distract. The Poison on the Silurid kills it, and re-summons the jackolope. Who is tasked with delaying seb. Cassandra gets into far corner. 1 point to Marcus for stake a claim. Turn 4 McMorning kills Marcus. Cassandra drops a 3rd claim just to be sure. Seb manages to escape the jackolope and run down the board. Flesh charges the blessed, but doesn#’t kill it, blessed kills the flesh construct in return and heads towads Seb. Bodyguard on Seb and Cassandra Game ends 3 points from the entourage on Cassandra, an extra point each for Body guard Final Score Marcus 8, McMorning 3 Stuart said He had heard reports on a piodcast of people nulifyign trappers by deploying nxt to them, and went for that approach, unfortuantly, Acolytes are still pertty decent in melee and can get out of combat if they really try. I made sure Turn 1 I eliminated his best ways to get claim markers, hoping that I would get a good lead. I did risk an eggs in 1 basket with Cassandra being vital for all my scheme points, but she had a decent support in the acolyte and blessed, and in the end all she had to do was walk. Marcus is my normal distraction, and I was happy for him to die off to Mcmorning, if it meant he wasn't nipping about dropping claims himself (or at least using his 0 to let his crew do it) Further games to follow 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adran Posted December 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2014 Game 2 Turf war Close deployement, Spring the trap, distract, Assasinate, Line in the sand, murder protogee Vs Scott Porter and Tara Tara Yin Sybelle 2 belles Flesh Construct Night Terror Spring the trap and Distract Marcus ((+ flips to attack and damage) Aracne Resevoir, Imbued energies. Decoy Slate Ridge Mauler Ice Golem Imbued Energies Killswitch Waldigiest Rogue Necromancy Imbued energies Decoy Assasinate and distract Close deployment makes the turf area touich the deployment zone, so I went for the tanks. I lost deployment and went first Largely deployed in a group near the middle aiming to swoop into the turf area and deny Tara. Flesh construct deployed on the top floor of a house that reached the turf area. Night Terror was behind that house. Yin was near to the house. Tara was in the middle with Sybell and the 2 belles out on 1 flank. Tara started the game by passing fast off to a belle (on 3 attempts) and sybelle and the belles then went to setup a trapped area for marcus, also luring in the waldigiest a little. The Waldigiest and Ice Golem moved forward to try and secure the turf area. Slate ridge mauler held back ready to deal with the night terror when it got in range. Yin put the Waldigiet on negative WP. The Rogue necromancy managed a speculative shot on the Sybelle/Belles group. Marcus went on a charge against Yin, but didn’t manage much. Tara tried a few minor shotsbut not with much effect. Turn 2 Tara started, and didn’t really do a huge amount. Marcus went after Yin, intending to kill her having neutralised the negatives. Black joker on the horryfiying duel meant that didn’t quite work. Yin Puts the golem at negative flips. Belles pull Marcus into the trap, and also the waldigiest, to distract them. Waldigiset wails on Tara, and mangeds to hurt her quiet a bit. Golem manages to get to her and hit her with its melee expert to slow her. Rogue necro goes fast, and badly hurts Yin. Bear does very little. Night terror and Flesh construct move into turf area. Tara Buries the ice golem. And returns to her deployment zone (Top floor of the house). Distract point to Tara. Turf war point each. Turn 3 Tara has to walk to the edge of the balcony to be able to do anything. Rogue manages to kill Yin this turn and the golem unburies. Necromancy is brought down to low wounds. We had decided the Balcony was height 4, so my Height 3 Ice golem can charge Tara on the balcony, and does so. Scott had forgotten this was possible. Tara doesn’t last long when I get a red joker for damage. Bear goes after the night terror and gets it down to its hard to kill. Marcus tries to kill off sybelle, but doesn’t. Waldigiest distracts Sybelle and one of the belles. The group pulll the rest of my models just outside the turf region. The Flesh construct walks off the balcony and attacks the mauler. And agaisn with his re-activate due to me running out of cards. 1 point for distract each, 1 turf war point for Tara Turn 4 Flesh construct just manages to kill off the Slate ridge mauler. None of my attempts to leave the ball of belles works well enough for me to stay free, and get into the turf marker. Game ends Final Score 9 for Tara (3 spring the trap, 3 distract 3 turf war) 6 for Marcus (3 assasinate 2 distract 1 turfwar). I had thought I was going to have Turf war sown up, but good play from Scott certainly undid that thought. I also wasn’t helped by forgetting I’d taken distract until turn 2, so missed scoring it for a turn. Scot wasn't helped by forgetting that just because he is up high, I can still hit him. I didn't use the bear well, he puut out a slow and that was about it, failing to even kill a night terror, or survive a flesh construct. Taras return to deployment in a close deployment game is great, it doesn't take her out the game for very long at all. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adran Posted December 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2014 Game 3 Reconnotre Flank deployment Lee Battrick with Pandora Power ritual, Breakthrough, Line in the sand, Bodyguard, outflank Pandora (fears given form) 2 Insidious madness Primordial Magic Stitched together Silurid Doppleganger Announced power ritual and Breakthrough Marcus (bonus damage limited), Arcane reservoir, Imbued energies Cassandra – Imbued Protection Arcane effigy Performer Manniquin Union Miner Decembers Acolye Announced Power ritual, bodyguard on Cassandra. Lee set up first, and held 1 madness back to get the starting power ritual corner. Other than that had Madness and Priomordial magic going sideways, Stitched and Dopleganger going forwards and the silurid and Pandora sort of middle. I deployed Marcus to get power ritual, Miner and Arcan to go right, and Cassandra, Performer and manniquinn to head forwards. The Decembers acolyte was placed with an early shot on the Madness and magic. Lee Went first The Madness moved up to be near enough to the acolyte and force a horror duel. I pointed out I was Frozen hearted, but Lee chose not to change his plans. Acolyte shot the Primordial magic, and left it on 1 wound. The Magic then tried to hid in the middle of the board. Use of the performer got me the mannequin up to Cassandra, who could then drop a scheme marker in the next corner. Pandora went to engage the Acolyte, and managed an incite. Stiched, Silurid and Doppleganger went after the other corner, and Marcus, after dropping a scheme, went after them, just reaching the silurid with his melee expert attack to put 2 damage on it. Miner moved to support. Arcane effigy tried to stay in my quarter, btu be near enough to buff Marcus next turn. Turn 2. Decembers acolyte was forced to go first, (which I was fairly happy to do), and stabbed pandora, making her slow. Pandora managed to move about to engage Cassandra as well. Madness here didn’t do much. Cassandra and the mannequin stupid;y didn’t get the heck out of dodge. The performer tried to sriens call the primordial magic, but with no luck. The last madness moved towards the middle of the board. Stiched tried gambling Marcus’ life, with a little success. Aracne buffed Marcus and then stuck in his quarter. Doppleganager tried to copy Gamble your life, and did so, but then suffered severe damage when she tried. Marcus killed the silurid, and got the sticthed so that burning would take him down to 1 wound. Miner was able to shoot twice at the doppleganger, and got burning +1 on her, meaning she was a gonner at the end of the turn. Thanks to the burning death of the doppleganger, I owned 2 quarters to Lees 1, so only I scored. Turn 3 Pandora used all 3 AP to force willpower duels on Cassandra, the acolyte and mannequin. Killed the Maniquin and hurt the other two as well as costing me much of my hand to keep them alive. Acolyte managed to get another attack of Pandora, making her slow. Performer was able to kill the Primordial magic, and Marcus killed the stiched and ran off to Lees home quarter. Cassandra tried to escape Pandora, and managed eventually. Marcus won 2-0 on quarters again Turn 4 Marcus took lees only scheme marker so far. The madness was able to drop a marker near enough to my deployment zone to count for breakthrough. Peformer and Cassandra both tried to remove the marker, but unsuccessfully. Pandora finally managed to kill the acolyte. Bodyguard on Cassandra, and I won 3-0 on quarters. Game ended, 7 points for Marcus (Cassandra wasn’t above half wounds), and 1 point for Pandora The Acolyte was probably my star here, tieing up Pandora for the game. That, and the doppleganger losing its gamble your life. That’s always the risk of that, and whilst I think its worth it for the stitched, it really cost him her on the more fragile doppleganger. The Silurid was Marcus’ number target, again, knowing that it could happily do all the schems on its own if I gave it a chance. I also was lucky that lee used one of the madnesses to bodyguard Pandora forcing the difficulty cheating, rather than it running off for scheme running. Game 4 to follow 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adran Posted December 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2014 Game 4 Squatters Rights Vs Sommer and James Reeves Corner deployment, Spring the trap, protect territory, outflank line in the sand and Breakthrough. Sommer (can of beans and Family tree) Bert (Dirty Cheater) Gracie (Saddle) 4 Gremlins Slop Hauler 2 skeetars. Announced protect Territory Spring the trap Marcus (+3 walk) (Arcane Resevoir) (imbued energies) Mech Rider (Imbued energies) Gupps Jackolope Blessed of December (imbued energies) Soulstone miner Announced protect territory Spring the trap, Turn 1 started off with Sommer failing to get a Mask in his first 8 cards, but managing to get 1 bro by spending a soulstone. Gupps went to my left, Blessed and mech rider went straight up. Jackolope went down the middle. I gremlin rushed towards the halfway line, and I sent Marcus off to get him. I failed, and Gracie saddled bert towards him, then reactivated, and they both Charged Marcus. Skeeters went after the mech rider. Initiative turn 2 could be vital!. Sooulstone Miner appears as near to the Sommer summoning as it could, over near the gupps, and the Bert/Marcus mash up. Turn 2 gremlins get it. Bert activates, and kills Marcus. The Mech rider pushes out of combat, and drops a fire gamin next to the skeeter. He then drops a claim marker. Sommer grabs 3 new gremlins, and the slop heals them up. 3 start heading out. Jackolope charges into the Bert/gracie and ties them up a little. Gracie kills him off but fails to reactivate. Miner kills one of the gremlins, and gains a stone. Gupps laps towards the miner and drops a claim. Blessed kills off the other skeeter and prepares to head over to the center. 1 point for Marcus Turn 3 Blessed gets bert to 1 wound. Bert activates and heals during his attacks on the blessed. Gupps kills off a gremlin and summons a Silurid. (Hey, its not stake a claim if no-one has a silurid right?). A gremlin manages to kill off the blessed. Gracie kills off the Jackolope, and on her reactivation drops a claim. Sommer summons 3 more gremlins. Slop does some healing. Mech Rider creates an Ice gamin, and shoots some of the gremlins. Draws a card, and drops 2 scheme markers near Sommer. The old gremlins remove them. Silurid leaps over to bert and gets him back down to 1 wound. Miner charges a gremlin and gets a soulstone. Fire gamin kills the skeeter and drops a scheme. 1 claim point for Marcus Turn 4 Bert manages to Kill the silurid, bringing the jackolope back, and healing him. Gracie moves off but fails her re-activate. Mech rider kills more gremlins, and drops schem markers near sommer. (This time protected by the freshly summoned fire gamin, and the miner). The gremlins manage to kill the fire gamin, and then one of them attacks Sommer who squees away and runs for safety. Miner goes after him, and tries to lock him down. Lat gremlin charges him and makes him squee again. 1 claim point for Marcus Turn 5 Mech Rider cahses after sommer, using its push to get out of combat, and manages to charge him. Tries to shield him fro any other way for him to squee (since defenders trigges were first he squeeed, then I dropped markers near him. Use my fast to stand next to him. Sommer manages to escape on his 3rd attempt, and because I didn’t think carefully about where I dropped the markers, he gets away from my trap. Gracie gets a scheme down,a nd another claim, but its not enough. Bert Kills the jackolope, stilli healing up. End of turn Marcus gets 1 for Claim We both have 2 protected scheme markers for 3 points End score 7-3 I thought I’d blown this game when Marcus got double charged on turn one, and then killed on turn 2 before he could activate. James didn’t think about spring the trap until just after killing Marcus, and then realised he’d blown 3 points, but kept quiet, and I was worried about Gracie getting a breakthrough, so kept feeding things to bert to keep him away from her. I rather showed I was going for Spring the trap, and the last 3 turns were a very benny hill like approach to catch Sommer somewhere. I think bert being separated from Gracie ruined James plan for the claim markers, and he never got much else near the half way line to even threaten dropping claims after I killed that gremlin with my gupps. Making this report made me realise how predictable my upgrades are, but I find that that’s all I need Marcus to do for me. I’m sure the feral, and Alpha and howl tricks are good, and I probably ought to use them more often, but in pressure situations, I’m happy to just throw Marcus into the enemy crew, and then let the rest of my crew score the points. I finished 3rd, so its probably a successful approach. I also seem to focus on disrupting or killing enemy scheme runners higher than most people I play against, which certainly helped me not concede too many points (I placed 3rd, tied on TPs with Scott but with a better difference of 13 to his 10, despite having scored 7 vps fewer than him) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argentbadger Posted December 4, 2014 Report Share Posted December 4, 2014 Great reports, thanks for sharing them. 3rd place is a really good result. Game 1: I don't think you needed to be too concerned about Cassandra; she's very annoying to put down and between Southern Charm and Nimble she's tricky to stop from just strolling away from any disengaging strikes. Game 2: I was quite surprised that you scored so few Turf War points with that crew, especially considering the close deployment. Black Joker on the horror duel with your master is really bad luck; do you think that was the difference between winning and losing a close game? Game 3: Lee copying Gamble Your Life with the Doppelganger was a very risky move that really back-fired! It seems like you had the game pretty much in hand by the end of turn 2. Game 4: James forgetting about Spring the Trap was huge, but you won by more than 3 points anyway so its not like it changed the scoring. In the final game of long tournaments it can be very easy to miss important things. It was interesting to see the Gupp - why take them over a Silurid? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Math Mathonwy Posted December 5, 2014 Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 Very nice reportage - thank you for writing them!Interestingly all the games bar the last ended after turn 4. Was this a factor overall in the tournament, do you think?Really interesting lists! I think I heard a rumble which was probably the sound dgraz made when he read your list for game 3. Marcus with no beasts! But even aside from that, I thought that all of your lists were pretty unorthodox aside from the one in game 1. Ice Golem, for example, came completely from the left field!Any thoughts on why you seem to go so hard against the conventional wisdom of Marcus builds? It seems to work, though!Game 4 was a real nail-biter. I was sure that you had lost when Marcus bit the dirt so early but it just goes to show that keeping your eye on the prize can lead to wonderful things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adran Posted December 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 I was a little surprised that I didn't reach turn 5 in all the games, but it didn't change the result in any of those. I think Dave played a shorter than normal time (by 5 minutes or so) to get the 4 games done in the day, And in all honesty, in 2 if not 3 of the games, we probably could have got turn 5 done before last activation (although that is partly due to there not needing much to happen). the top 2 places both were unbeaten for the day, and I got 3rd on tiebreak, so 4 rounds worked out for me, 3rd rather than 7th or 8th Game 1 I was a little worried that if Mcmorning and all his forces went after Cassandra, I was out 6 points, so hoped he split his forces signifigantly. I hadn't really used her in 2nd ed before, so I forget southern charm all through this game, and game 3. Game 2 the black joker hurt, and probably cost me 1 point overall (maybe 2), but I think even with that extra activation from Marcus, Scott out played me. I thougth with that crew it was virtually garenteed for full turf war points, and so didn't really worry about them, until half my crew was pulled out the area, which was too late really. Ice golem is a truely solid model with 1 weakness in my mind, and thats its slow speed, so a game where it is threatening the turf marker with only 1 Ap used is one in which it should shine. Slate ridge suffers a similar issue, so again I thought the two of them would never leave. I picked a very durable crew, but with low df. Unfortuantly armour and hard to wound, and healing don't actually help when you need to disengage and your low Df kicks in. Especially when you can't safely kill the belles because of needing Distract. In Hindsight I should have killed at least 1 of the trio early, if not 2, and then just stuck to my plan. Scott did well in pickign a list that I probably could execute my plan against, distract may have been a poor choice, as there probably wasn't a pair of models I could afford to not be trying to kill and still get my points. Yes, Lee losing the doppleganger from 1 of his own AP was huge. It cost him that turns reconnotre point, and probably at least one other point. If it had payed off and he hit marcus for severe, then it might have been enough to kill Marcus and swing the game his way, probably getting him a couple of extra stratergy points, and all 6 points for schemes. I think he also over committed against my decembers acolyte, who was a great foil to Pandora, immune to her horror, and with a weak damage of 1 in Ml, she just couldn't take him down very fast. The lack of anythign which could deal signifigant damage over there helped me a lot. Game 4 had me thinking I was down and out. But never give up, especially when you haven't dropped the points... I picked a Gupps because I knew James liked a summoning Gremlin list, so it saved me some points, and there was a decent chance I could get the kill for the summon anyway. In my original plan I was going to take a gupps and a silurid, but decided to drop the silurid for the Soulstone miner to have somethign with a bit more bite. I only had 1 stone to add to my cache so didn't have enough to start with the silurid instead of the Gupps, without dropping an upgrade, and fast on a heavy hitter/ scheme/claim dropper is normally slightly better than the difference between the Silurid and the Gupps. Crew selection is something where I differ from Dgraz (and others) quite a bit. I haven't personally had much sucess with Marcus as a beast buffer, so I play to my strengths, and pick the best model for the job I want it to do. Sometimes, its a beast, from another faction, but thats almost always the only time I really care for it as a beast. This was my attitude before and it probably explains why the Jackolope is less common in my lists now than in 1st ed. It getting 2 attacks on the charge is well worth the extra ss, but now I can't re-summon it from enemy beasts, it doesn't come back anywhere near as often. My approach does really help me in this sort of Fixed master tournement, as it can truely lead to very different builds, and is very hard for my opponent to build to prevent, as they have much less idea of my plan. But I probably do need to expand my Marcus Upgrade list a little, and get some more practise using him as the support master. I hadn't picked him up for about 6 months, so I was very happy with how I did, and I know I can always pick a list to put up a decent challenge using Marcus. He is more of a struggle in a fixed pool faction ( I literally own everything he can use except Killjoy now I think) for me, but only because I need to actually restrict his hiring pool, and I really make the most of him having the second largest hiring pool in the game. And now I've been able to diverge all thsi game knowledge, I can go back and read the otehr battle repoorts from this week, and not worry about replacing information... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barnaberible Posted December 5, 2014 Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 Great reports, thanks Phil Game 2: I was quite surprised that you scored so few Turf War points with that crew, especially considering the close deployment. Black Joker on the horror duel with your master is really bad luck; do you think that was the difference between winning and losing a close game? Thing is with a low model count, sybelle with not too banged up, close deployment, 2 belles and Tara's ability to make them fast means I could essentially get 6 lures per turn at +2 walk (if I needed to) and with only 5 targets to pick from it was easy to get them out of the turf area and keep them there I made a massive mistake with Tara in forgetting that assassinate was in the pool (otherwise I would have just hid her away for the rest of the game) and I massively over extended Yin but putting the pressure on the strategy gave me a bit of breathing room Was a great game though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adran Posted December 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 I think, that looking carefully at what I picked, and what Scott picked, I should have taken Murder protgee (sybelle) and assasinate. Then barrelled into the belles ASAP, accept that I couldn't stop spring the trap, hopefully kill them by the end of Turn 2/early turn 3 with Marcus, and then use him to hunt down Tara, whilst the rest of the crew was tying up Turf war. Would probably have had several models that were either buried by Tara, or Paralysed by Yin before I got to them, but hopefully not enough would be taken out to stop me scoring. Would still have been a close game, but the closeness of this one was exageratted by Scott Forgetting Assasinate. I couldn't have reached Tara in time if she just hid in the house and did nothing, and I'd just spent 2 activations hitting her with everything I had so I couldn't expect him not to know what I was doing. The assasinate almost cost Scott big time, as I only finished above him due to a 3 VP better difference, and that would have been a swing of 6 VP. Which would then have placed Scott in 14th for the years Rankings, and a Masters place (but since Ben already had one, his 15th place was good enough to get him in) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clousseau Posted December 6, 2014 Report Share Posted December 6, 2014 We played 105 mins for the first 2 games and 100 for the second 2, with last turn called with 10 mins to go. Lots of games went a full 5 turns. Thanks for an interesting report. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jondoe297 Posted December 6, 2014 Report Share Posted December 6, 2014 i didn't realise you had changed the length of the last two rounds? Got all 5 turns in i believe, my first was a a squeeze due to a newbie and the third coz it was a close fought game. Good report Phil and excellent day David (although just two more people... ) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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