Les rocking the new official Team Spite shirt. I picked these up two days before we hit the road.
Little Scudo wandered over to say what up and get some steamroller sheets.
z1g1 wide eyed and ready to roll to the team tourney.
The crowd grew outside the gaming hall as we awaited our chance to grab seats for the keynote presentation. Guarding our door was the famous/infamous G'daybloke. It was nice to BS and catch up a little prior to getting into the hall.
PPS Ed Bourelle, Will Shick, and Lyle Lowery preparing to dazzle the crowd with the new hotness. If you haven't seen the keynote presentation yet....but I am sure you have head over to privateer press and check it out.
Time crisis was suppose to be a 75pt event with frenzy timing per the new steamroller 2013 rules. Frenzy timing for those of you that are unaware uses the turn times of two point lvls lower. This means a 75pt event would have seven min turns with one three min extension! The didn't have enough of the correct clocks so we ended up playing 42min deathclock instead. There was a drawing for anyone using two 120mm bases in a single list after watch round. The two lists I settled on were:
Chief Madrak Ironhide (*6pts)
* Mountain King (20pts)
* Troll Axer (6pts)
* Dire Troll Mauler (9pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
* Mulg the Ancient (12pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Sons of Bragg (6pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Janissa Stonetide (3pts)
Troll Whelps (2pts)
Trollkin Champion Hero (3pts)
and
Borka Kegslayer (*5pts)
* Mountain King (20pts)
* Rok (11pts)
* Dire Troll Mauler (9pts)
War Wagon (9pts)
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)
The Madrak list is a variation of the pMaddy list I have been paying for the last year and love to play. I have this list down pretty darn well and have my order of activation pretty well set. The second list is a Family Reunion list that I have played some but never with the two 120mm bases. I was really excited to try this guy out and planned to play this most if not all of the games. It was at this time that I ran into a serious snag in my plans. While I was unpacking my lists for the tourney I noticed I didn't have my keg carrier! I ran out to the war store booth to try and buy a new Borka but they had non in stock. Well looks like just pMaddy for me. The event had a pretty small entrance seeing as so many people were still playing in the team tourney.
My first round opponent was Andrew from New Jersey. The first round scenario was into the breach. He decided to run a Constance Blaze list. We both made some mistake throughout the fight but I think he forgot the effects of snaking when he selected his list as on his feat turn my beat up beasts destroyed large chunks of infantry and due to snaking he didn't get the souls and therefore the major benefits of the feat. The game ended with Constance being assassinate. We both played a little sloppy but it was a fun game and was a good opponent. 1-0
Round two I played Brian from New Hampshire. He was playing pDenny.....uggh. As a troll play I loathe pDenny since unless I am play pDoomshaper I know one of my units/beasts will be out of play the entire game. The game was back and forth. While he decided to crippling grasp the mountain king and take him out of action I was able to do some serious counter damage and was able to weather Denny brutal feat. This too was a fun game but there was a clock SNAFU on my part. Since we didn't have a chess clock that switched time over I forgot to start my clock. In response I decided to let my clock run off time as a penalty which we both felt was fair. I forgot I could just adjust the time and restart my turn. Well the round time ended and we learned of a new SR2013 rule. If the combined time on both clocks is greater than 5 min the game is considered a draw. my clock showed 5 min and his showed 1 min. Result = draw. We were pretty sure his clock was <30 sec so while waiting for the pairings for the next round I hit the start button and began to count. the clock had 12 sec left. Uggh I screwed this game up. 1-0-1
My opponent for the last round was Tim from Pennsylvania. I am not sure if you can make it out but this was a Sturm and Drang force made up of seven war hogs and two road hogs! Here I thought I was rolling beast heavy. The mission at hand was incursion. Incursion is not a favorite of mine playing beast bricks as spreading out is something I really would like to avoid. The game was going pretty well for me as the mountain king just wouldn't die and I was able to continuously block charge lanes with spawning whelps. I got a little careless however and ended up losing on scenario as I couldn't get enough back to contest the last flag. S&D killed the mauler that was contesting the last flag and dominated to get the last two CPs required to win. When the dust cleared I killed all seven war hogs and one of the road hogs but that darn scenario victory jumped up and bit me.
I finished 1-1-1 and never having played at 75pts in the past I have to say it was a fun event to play in. I enjoyed playing with all three of my opponents which helped to make it a fun event. Time to grab a little dinner and get ready for midnight madness. The midnight tournament was warcaster's dilemma which was a 35pt event with specialist. Specialists is a new feature in SR2013 which acts like a sideboard. The two lists I selected for the event were:
Hoarluk Doomshaper (*7pts)
* Troll Axer (6pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
* Mulg the Ancient (12pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Pyg Burrowers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
specialist:
Trollkin Runeshapers (Leader and 2 Crew) (4pts)
Janissa Stonetide (3pts)
Troll Whelps (2pts)
and
Jarl Skuld, Devil Of Thornwood (*6pts)
* Troll Impaler (5pts)
* Dire Troll Bomber (10pts)
* Ršk (11pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer (2pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
specialists:
Sons of Bragg (6pts)
Alten Ashley, Monster Hunter (2pts)
Saxon Orrik (2pts)
My opponent for the first round was Tyler from Connecticut. He was playing Legion and while I cannot remember what his other list was I was pretty sure he was going to pick Saeryn and he did. I went with pDoomie. In hindsight I am not sure why I picked this list as I think Jarl would be a bit better here. I had an odd feeling the dygs were really going to get their moneys worth and maybe that is why I picked pDoomie. I won the roll and went first. Turn one nothing eventful on either side other than buffs and advancing. Two tur I popped the dygs, fell called them, fortuned them, and purified the respawn on an angle. The dygs then charge an angle and neph bolthrower killing the angle and taking out half of the neph. This was an early piece advantage for me and I was able to ride this out to a W. it did get a little hair there for a second near the end when I left the smallest of gaps between minis allowing Saeryn to throw some knifes at Doomshaper but he made it through relatively unscathed. 1-0
Round two I ran into Derrick from Canada. I actually met Derrick last March when I headed up to Toronto to play in the Conquest Tournament that Northblade and Boots were running. Based on his two lists I selected Jarl planing on popping feat early to prevent some shooting. He selected Ravyn as 'caster. The game ended top of three when he moved Ravyn a little too far forward and I was able to drop two sniped bomber shots on top of her. 2-0
Round three was Chris from NYC playing Protectorate. I watched some of his game from the previous round and hear him say he like to play Thyra versus trolls so I had a pretty good idea which list he was going to play. I selected my Jarl list. The game was back and forth with both of us making some mistakes. My biggest mistake came when I had an enlivened Avatar in charge range of Rok. When enliven was put on the Avatar I laid out my plan to trigger enliven and still be able to get Rok on him. Well when I got to that part of my turn I forgot my plans and just primaled Rok and charged....oooppps. We were both starting to see a lot of attrition when the judges came over and called time. I was a little thrown off by this as we didn't have any major clock issues that I could recall. His deathclock had less than a min left on it and my had just over 5 min. What did we learn earlier kiddies? Doh another drawn 2-0-1
The last round of the tourney started about 5:30am. I was pitted against Paul from NYC (a buddy of Chris in fact). He was playing Cirle and picked a Grayle army. I went with pDoomie for no specific reason. I was a little on auto pilot at this time and figured out game really didn't mean anything. Paul had me from the get go. He was putting his pieces in far better location and was just out playing me without question. He ended up winning the game on scenario. We had a fun game but he won really easily. While out game was still going on the sun began to shine through the windows and when all was said and done it was 7:00am when the event was over.
I really enjoyed this event and liked all my opponents. Despite being thoroughly beaten by Paul I was really happy to hear during the announcements that he finished fourth in the event and qualified for masters. I guess our game did mean something.
After the tourney nick and I stumbled a round for a little bit looking to grab some breakfast but ended up just heading back to the room and crashing. That wrapped up day one of Templecon and I have to say it was a fun day and I was really glad to have seven games that were enjoyable and seven opponents I would gladly play again in the future. Thanks guys for fun games.
