Templecon Day 2 Wrap Up

I had big plans for day two prior to heading to Templecon but those changed for me. I was expecting to play in hard core but after finishing the warcaster's dilemma tournament at 7am that morning and getting to sleep around 9am I just didn't have it in me and I actually didn't get up until 11:30 (30 min after registration).

Team Spite had two players hitting up hardcore. The first was Zack aka playing Galleon oh I mean mercs. His list was a T4 Shae pirates life. This list had a very heavy assassination focus (more on this later). The other representative was Adam aka Bloodyarcane the junior member of our crew. As I think about it Scudo may have played his Circle army in hardcore too but I cannot remember.

Round one was starting as I was getting out of the shower I received a text message from Adam say he was paired with Warmahorde super start Jake Van Meter (neutralize). I knew Adam was super pumped to play him but was afraid he was going to be a little start struck. Well turns out I was right as Jake turn two assassinated pDenny with Typhon and didn't kill a single additional model. This is important to not as the new hardcore rules have been changed for mage hunter and killing a warnoun w/o killing another models puts you at the top of the heap to win. As it turns out Zack was playing Volt Ron playing Protectorate. I was hoping to run into Volt as his blog is one of the ones I check into regularly and you can see it here http://miniarmyhugetimesink.wordpress.com/  Well it turned out that Zack got an assassination as well killing only one model in addition to the 'caster. This would have put him in great shape for mage hunter if it were not for Jake's 0 against young 'arcane.

After hearing round ones results Zack was on a mission and was "hunting that zero" the rest of the day. Round two found him a L, round three another assassination with only one model killed in addition to the 'caster. Then came round four and Zack got that zero putting him in a tie with Jake with a 0. Round five came about and saw Jake and Zack matched against each other. As long as Jake didn't throw a 0 up against Zack he was going to hold on and take home mage hunter.

Picture says 1000 words. Team Spite dun got a metal! z1g1 "sniffed out that zero!" and won mage hunter.

Those that know hardcore know the four metal categories and my personal favorite is master craftsman. Master Craftsman was won by a gentleman named Erik Lui (I believe). He painted up a stunning Gaspy3 force. I took a few photos for y'all. Behold the beauty!

The water on the back of the base was hand painted! 

 How can I not love this army he even did trolls! Cryxian trolls but trolls.

While hardcore was going on I wandered around a while once again looking at the demos and watching some of the hardcore matches. It was during this time I got a demo game in of Rivet Wars. Rivet Wars had a kickstarter going which ended Monday am around 3am. I had been watching the kickstarter pretty closely prior to heading to Templecon and when I saw they had a table set up I knew I wanted a demo. I had a fun demo with one of the cool min or not guys and when I got home late Sunday I jumped on the computer and bought into the kickstarter as a birthday present to myself. I now have another game to look forward to in September.

After my game of rivet wars I headed back to the room to grab my trolls to hit the iron arena. Last year I didn't really have a clear cut goal for iron arena points this year however I had a very specific targeted item at 45 skulls. I also wanted to try and get a game with one of the PPS guys this year. As I was just getting back down to the gaming hall Ed Bourelle was walking in with his tray and appeared to be looking for a game. I inquired as such and off to a table we went. Ed was playing a new Legion army for himself (only the second game played I believe he said) while I was playing my beloved trolls. I feel I kinda net decked him a little when I pulled Jarl out against his Saeryn list. I played:

Jarl Skuld, Devil Of Thornwood (*6pts)
* Troll Impaler (5pts)
* Dire Troll Bomber (10pts)
* Rok (11pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
War Wagon (9pts)
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (Cylena and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
Sons of Bragg (6pts)
Saxon Orrik (2pts)

I played one point down as the only one point mini I had was swamp gobbers and they aren't worth taking out of the bag against eyeless sight beasts.

Mr Bourelle's list:

Saeryn, Omen of Everblight (*5pts)
* Naga Nightlurker (5pts)
* Shredder (2pts)
* Carnivean (11pts)
* Ravagore (10pts)
* Scythean (9pts)
Blackfrost Shard (5pts)
Blighted Nyss Legionnaires (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Captain Farilor & Standard (3pts)
Blighted Nyss Shepherd (1pts)
Blighted Nyss Shepherd (1pts)
Succubus (2pts)
 

In game action.

The game was a ton of fun and I am really grateful that he took the time to play me. The game was a bloody mess with both forces being decimated. When I finally killed Saeryn all I had left on the table was five Nyss, an impaler with 6 life, Jarl with 4 life remaining and on fire, and Saxon with 2 life left. It is interactions like these that I feel set PP apart and really fuel my love for the game and the people developing it. I doubt he will see this but once again thank you for the game Ed and hope to play again some day!

After the completion of hardcore a group of the guys found a table and set up a game of Twilight Imperium. They played a game the night before which I watched a little. I was going to join in on this one but it looked far to complex for my current mental state plus I had those 45 arena points to track down.

Adam and John setting up

 

Adam looking tough or trying at least

 

Dave and Zack really getting into TI. The adult beverages may have helped here :)

The standard issue tournament was going on after hardcore as well. Team Spite's Oxyguy and Theprofessional Mr Cash played in this event. Les one one of the round by round drawings for not having any characters. He won a Thor blister. Unfortunately for Les this was about the only thing he won that afternoon.

While the other guys were playing TI or standard issue Abe, Nick and myself hit up the iron arena. We played a few multiplayer games on scenario tables.

Abe borrowed Nick's stormwall for this game. He played Nemo2 double stormwall. If you look at the bottom of the picture mountain king is saying bring it old man.

Nick breaking out some Skorne. 

Last game of the night we played a four player 2v2 game on a cave scenario board. At this time I was pretty shot mentally. We picked up another play to fill out the team. I forgot to write his name down and it is eluding me at this time but he was playing pSevy. We ended up losing on scenario around 4am but I got my 45th skull and hit the redemption table!

 

Here is my prize. I saw on day one they had a stack of about 10 copies of No Quarter #1. I was a little set back by the number of pts required to get one but I think it helped keep them "in stock" while i was building my points. I was very excited to see these on the prize stand as I was only missing three issues of No Quarter prior to heading to Templecon. I only need issues three and four to complete my collection.

 

 

Templecon: Blood, Sweat, Tiers 1st Thoughts (part 2)

Picking up where we left off let’s get back into some more theme force fun. Today I will be looking at Borka's family reunion, the Madraks, Calandra, Jarl, and eBloodsong,

·         Borka, Family Reunion:

o   Requirements to achieve T4:

§  Two or more champion heroes

§  Stone scribe chronicler

§  Three or more champion and/or slugger units

Army list:

Borka Kegslayer (*5pts)
* Pyre Troll (5pts)
* Swamp Troll (4pts)
Greygore Boomhowler & Co. (Boomhowler and 9 Grunts) (9pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Trollkin Champions (Leader and 2 Grunts) (6pts)
* Skaldi Bonehammer (3pts)
Stone Scribe Chronicler (2pts)
Trollkin Champion Hero (3pts)
Trollkin Champion Hero (3pts)

I love the family reunion and feel it has addressed an issue bugging me for some time. Why the hell is Boomhowler not faction when taken with trolls? I mean those dirty elves get retribution partisan on all of their mercs why not of Kith and Kriel or something along those lines for Boomie and his boys? OK I am off the soap box now. I love this theme force and I find myself using it nearly every time I choose to take Borka to my FLGS. I typically leave the champs at home when I play it however since I have never really had much luck with them. I don't play them that often, to be honest, but when I do they rarely get their points back and seem to be taken out of play far too easily. Even after complaining about the champions I decided to try them out again. I am a little worried about playing this with no heavies. We will see this list may need some serious tweaking but I like the title of the post says....first thoughts :)

·         pMadrak, War Party:

o   Requirements to achieve T4:

§  Two or more units of kriel warriors

§  Two units of bushwhackers

§  At least one axer and one impaler

This is not the way I like to play pMadrak. I have mentioned it here before, and my local meta knows, I love playing the beast brick with pMadrak. Moving on this is not the lock for me.

·         Madrak, End Times:

o   Requirements to achieve T4:

§  Two units of fennblades

§  Horthol

§  Two or more heavy warbeasts

Two units of fennblades? Cleaning the mold line off my first box set almost made me rage quit the game. “These aren’t the droids we’re looking for. You can go about your business. Move along, move along”

·         Calandra, Children of Dhunia:

o   Requirements to achieve T4:

§  Two or more trollkin solos

§  One or more scout or pyg units

§  Two or more earthborn dire trolls

Army list:

Calandra Truthsayer, Oracle of the Glimmerwood (*5pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (9pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (9pts)
Kriel Warriors (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* 3 Kriel Warrior Caber Thrower (3pts)
* Kriel Warrior Standard Bearer & Piper (2pts)
Pyg Burrowers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Stone Scribe Chronicler (2pts)

Hmm. I used to play Calandra a fair amount when I first started playing WM/H and I always loved her. Calandra got put on the shelf cause people get frustrated playing against starcrossed, her feat, and dygs. I typically take a bomber/impaler with her but seeing as the list doesn't allow for bombers the EBDT is a really good heavy beast option and since the bomber is gone no need for the impaler. One of the nice things about the theme force is that it still allows me to take almost the entire dygmy support staff with the only omission being the champ hero for the CMD 10. This list is my heavy hitter with multiple options for cracking high armor. You may be asking where is the dmg buff? I look at the caber thrower as a dmg buff for the EBDT. by running a caber next to a target then charging the EBDT so that the caber is in his melee range puts the EBDT at P+S 19 with 7 attacks...not a lot is going to stand up to that. If you take into account Cally's feat.....bad news bears for the target. I am playing around with some other builds
so this option is still very fluid.

·         Jarl Skuld, Highwayman:

o   Requirements to achieve T4:

§  Two units of scattergunners

§  Three or more units (kriel warriors, scattergunners, bushwhackers, SoB)

§  Three or more light warbeasts

I don't really care for Jarl's themes. I really like taking minions and mercs with him. I love the gatorman posse and Nyss hunters. If I am going to go with a faction unit I like fennblades. Since none of these units are an option in his theme force Jarl is out.

·         eBloodsong: Blockade Runners:

o   Requirements to achieve T4:

§  Horthol

§  Sons of Bragg

§  Three or more warbeasts

Grissel Bloodsong, Marshal of the Kriels (*6pts)
* Troll Impaler (5pts)
* Dire Troll Bomber (10pts)
Kriel Warriors (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* 2 Kriel Warrior Caber Thrower (2pts)
* Kriel Warrior Standard Bearer & Piper (2pts)
Trollkin Long Riders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (10pts)
Horthol, Long Rider Hero (4pts)
Troll Whelps (2pts)

I have not fielded Mrs. Bloodsong in a single game yet but I really like her sculpt and have wanted to play her. The theme force allows you to have cavalry models at -1 pts. That is Horthol for 4pts, full long riders for 10pts, and the war wagon for 8pts…..what’s not to love there. The issue I am having is squeezing in all I want that the 35pt level. I would love to have a wagon and the SoBs (I love these guys now) but I couldn’t seem to make it happen. I also wish she had access to the KSB but no dice. I am considering swapping the two beasts to an axer and a mauler but, on paper, I think I prefer the ranged element the bomber adds and the ability to far strike Grissel.

So there we have it two posts looking at the theme forces available to me for Templecon and a few preliminary lists. I like a few of them on paper more than I thought I would initially. Seeing as one of the lists needs to be T4 I am starting to think I may have to get that last unit of runeshapers and do the Runes of War theme as one of the two. What do y’all think? Any of these lists ones you would not want to see across the table? Any of the lists you would like to see on the painting table and finished? Well work week is almost over so back to actually getting paint to models this week. Hopefully some finished minis to post soon.