Hi all again, it’s time for another set of my battle reports and this time it’s one of the big ones, the UK Nationals. Me & my gaming group around Stockport have been waiting for the Masters to come around again as this was the first big event that we played in as a group when we joined the Warmachine community last year. Last year there were 5 of us, myself with my Khador, Rich Loxam with his Circle, Tony Moore with his Legion, the infamous Jimbo also with Circle and Adam Brown with his Protectorate. We used the Masters as a sort of ‘level test’ to see if we were any good or not and being quite a competitive group in general we were keen to take this test. This isn’t too far from why we are looking forward to the Masters again this year because now we are a far more seasoned group of players and together we want to be pushing to get into that top ten and hopefully grab some ‘best in faction’ places or even other awards.

Jimbo isn’t joining us this year (I think) but once again I will be there with my Khador, Tony with his Legion, Rich has turned to the dark side and gone for Cryx this year, and Adam has kept his unshakable (fanatic?) faith in his Menoth also. Although we do have some newer faces this year as Nige Chorlton joins us with his own Khador and I think Darran (the owner of the NW Gaming Centre) might also be trying to join the big boys with some Trolls.

Anyway, speaking just for myself I’d really really love to grab the top Khador spot this year and I know it will be hotly contested by a few other quite competent players and I look forward to those games. In particular I’d look forward to playing Jim, who I’m told is the only player to go undefeated at all the previous Masters events. I had the pleasure of playing Jim last year in game 5 but made the most monumental balls-up and quite literally handed my caster to him on a platter, so I’d quite relish the opportunity to redeem myself and who knows, everyone has to lose sometime

In MKii I’ve become a little bit infamous in my own right, more for my (excessive?) use of Mercenaries in my Khador armies, and I wouldn’t want to disappoint anyone so I’ve kept to that trend. After all if it ain’t broke...

Epic Sorscha
Beast 09 (bonded)
Spriggan
10 Winter Guard Infantry + 2x Rockets & Unit Attachment
Winter Guard Mortar
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich
War Dog
10 Nyss Hunters
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt
Harlan Versh
Epic Eiryss

Old Witch & Scrapjack
The Behemoth
Devastator
10 Winter Guard Infantry + 2x Rockets & Unit Attachment
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich
10 Nyss Hunters
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt
Gorman De Wolfe
Epic Eiryss

I’ve spent most of MKii with the Masters in mind and have experimented with about 6 or 7 of the Khador warcasters with countless list incarnations before narrowing it down to these two. The only real reservation that I’ve not been able to sort out is the similarity in units that they have (ie, they both use light infantry) which could prove to be an Achilles Heel. Other than that I’m now quite happy with how they both work and they do have two different preferred targets (which is a big part of playing with 2 army lists, they both need to be great but also do different things to make it worth having two lists). Anyone who has read my previous report from the Welsh Open will know that the Old Witch is very dangerous in scenario play and (for a khadoran) has a lot of tricks to bring to the table. Epic Sorscha has a more streamlined purpose which is quite literally just utter destruction, in the words of a UFC commentator ‘he doesn’t just beat you, he beats you up!’ Epic Sorscha doesn’t have that many scenario winning tricks but she can win scenarios by causing that much catastrophic damage to the opponents army that he would then be unable to contest the scenario at all.

I was looking quite recently at Prime Irusk and Prime Butcher among others (Strakhov & Epic Vlad) all of which would also be quite solid choices but the main deciding factor here is that I have the most experience now with Sorscha and the Witch which puts them ahead of the rest. So it was experience that dictated my lists rather than either of those two being the most outstanding, performance wise. In terms of using those lists in competitive environments I took the Old Witch to the Welsh Open with the same list, I also took her at a 35 point level to Maelstrom’s Scrap Metal event where she earned me 2nd place overall and I have used the Old Witch with E-Sorscha in a 35 point event early on in the year at CACK to get 1st place. Sorscha was also used recently at Alex Smith’s Pre Masters Mash-Up where I placed 4th so overall I’m happy with the track records of both Casters.

If I had to pin point how I think I’m going to do I think 4-5 wins is a realistic target, obviously I want to get all 6 but hey, every man can dream cant he? I’m going to lay my bet on the table now and say that I think Rich Loxam has the best chance of winning the Masters this year (of our group anyway). He’s put almost as much play test time in as I have (in fairness, there was a long time where I had no job and became a vassalite all day) and he is going down there with two insanely hard lists. He has the experience and the tools to do it, it’s just a question of if he cracks under the pressure really. I wish him all the luck that he’s going to need to win it but obviously if I have to play him I’m going to make it as difficult as I possibly can

See you all there!

WELL, that was an utterly amazing weekend. Great games and great company all the way through, all of my opponents has a positive and competitive attitude which is exactly what you want at a national event. I need to join the applause for the press gangers who ran the event because it they did do a good job and they were also kind enough to let me run a little £1 sweepstake between the players. Said sweepstake had me running around like a headless chicken between games trying to look for people who A, I didn’t know the names of and B, didn’t know what they looked like! I got a big of a cheer as I ran back into the main room just before game 6 shouting ‘I FOUND THE LAST PLAYER!!!’

GAME ONE – Chris Horwe – Protectorate of Menoth – Process of Elimination

I was a little nervous for my first game because as much as I did just want to enjoy the weekend I was aiming to do as well as I could and any slip ups can cost you big time at the Masters. I felt a little easier in the knowledge that Chris was playing a tiered list because although they do have nice little extra abilities they don’t tend to be quite as potent as the unrestricted versions:

Epic Kreoss
Fire of Salvation
Dervish
Knights Exemplar
Knights Exemplar
3 Exemplar Seneschals
5 Exemplar Bastions
5 Exemplar Bastions
Daughters of the Flame
Vassal Mechanic
Vassal Mechanic

A quite incredible lack of support for a Menoth army but this was entirely due to the fact that it was a tier list. On the other hand 10 bastions, 3 seneschals and 12 knights would take some shifting. After looking at both of Chris’ lists I decided to go with the Old Witch, also because there was a fairly large forest on one end of the scoring zone and I felt that I would need her anti infantry shenanigans. On to the game...

I won the roll for deployment and decided to take advantage of that forest by choosing the side that it was on, I would be able to hide the witch in/behind that safely all game if I could hold Chris at the tree line. If I couldn’t hold that line Id have lost by scenario anyway. Behemoth and the winter guard were to the right of the wood, Devastator and the Nyss were to the left with my solos also on the right hand side, scrappy and the witch just stared at the woods down the middle. Chris deployed centrally with one bastion unit facing either scoring zone along with a unit of knights each. The fire of salvation deployed opposite the behemoth while Kreoss and the Dervish stayed central. I had my eye on the Dervish as being a Skorne player shows you how dangerous side-step can be.

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In my turn one I threw up my upkeep spells (Avatar on the Scrapjack and Iron Flesh on the Winter Guard) and everything sprinted forward except eiryss who stayed hidden inside a small forest to the right.

In Chris’ turn one he did the same, the exemplar knights ran to engage my winter guard, the second unit ran towards scrapjack who was hiding in the forest, Chris also put up sacrosanct on the unit engaging the winter guard, and +2 armour on the other unit.

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I had to start hurting those bastions before they got too close, but the exemplars would be a pain to move thanks to their increasing armour bonus when you start to kill them. On top of this I wouldn’t be able to stop the Fire of Salvation hitting me next turn but decided that I would just have to take that bullet (on the bright side he had no choir) and so I set about making evil plans for the infantry. I dropped 4 focus into the Scrapjack and I upkept my spells. Eiryss moved so that she could see out of the woods and shot an exemplar to remove sacrosanct. My winter guard then advanced and put the hurt onto both knight units and the three nearby seneschals, knocking one of them down (life bond let him heal one when I misjudged what was in his CMD area). They also sniped the Vassal Mechanic with a pair of rockets and did a few points. Scrapjack then killed two more centre knights before teleporting back to the witch who just moved up and feated. The Nyss did some CRAs into the left hand bastions supported by some shots from Holt. The Devastator advances to contest the left area and the Behemoth advanced into the right area while dropping some superficial damage onto the fire of salvation with his bombards. Gorman stepped forwards and dropped a black oil bomb on the Dervish & Versh shot at the bastions but missed (hangs head again).

In Chris’ turn two he wanted to be engaging me but my feat was going to cause him problems. The left side bastions charged into my feat (going after the nyss). Now when Chris explained his interpretation of the sanguine bond rules for damage transfer they sounded a little odd, I called over a press ganger but my powers of English managed to fail me and I couldn’t explain myself properly so I just decided to go with it. Essentially what Chris did was take all the damage and spread it out normally BUT when a bastion took say 8-9 points of damage he would then transfer it to a model on one wound and say that the other 7-8 damage points were wasted, now I know that’s not right and if they transfer it around they have to take the full damage or let the original model suffer it alone. Basically I was playing hardcore-bastions... 10 of them... anyhow 2 survived my feat rolls to engage the Nyss and they killed one. The second unit advanced but not into the feat. The Seneschals killed a few winter guard as did the remaining knights. The Fire had gained its free move (thanks to models dying around it) and advanced into the Behemoth but even with 3 focus on him the Fire only did superficial damage. Kreoss advanced with his bastions and camped the rest of his focus. The Dervish moved between the scoring zones.

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Now that my feat had broken up the Protectorate advance it was time to deal some real damage. Spells were upkept and the Behemoth was given 3 focus to pulverise the Fire of Salvation with. The Nyss received a charge order and finished off the Left hand bastions along with the last of the centre knight unit. Behemoth scrapped the Fire of Salvation. Winter guard started to put serious damage onto the other bastion unit but only killed 2, they killed a seneschal. Gorman stepped forward and blinded the Dervish. I scored one scenario point for the left area.

Chris knew he needed to hit me back hard but I had left him with very few options to deal with my heavies. He feated anyway and the Bastions and seneschals moved into my winter guard killing 7 or 8 of them along with Eiryss. The Dervish moved into the left area to engage my nyss.

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My remaining models cleared out the last few bastions (they were on 1-2 wounds each anyway) and killed all the seneschals to claim a win on scenario. Chris was wondering if a downed seneschal can contest and I urged him to ask a referee to find out but he said that at that stage he was happy to give me the game. If he had had enough left to fight me with then he would have asked, later on we found out that he was right and a downed seneschal does contest (broken!).

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I haven’t faced a menoth list with quite so many exemplars before and they were tough to break down but I think that the Witch was the right woman for the job. The nasty things she can do to infantry (particularly her feat) really helped me stagger Chris’ advance. A really fun guy to play and a very sporting chap about the seneschal at the end. With regards to those hardcore-bastions it was an honest mistake by Chris so it’s not something I’d hold against him... I still managed to take down all 10!

So with my first win in the bag I went over to Loxam to find out that he’d lost his first game! In fairness to Pat Vance who is no fool with his legion but that still must have HURT. I then went off in search of the rest of the sweepstakers!...


GAME TWO – Paul Barritt – Protectorate of Menoth – Capture the Flag

Urgh, Menoth again... and Urgh, Capture the Flag. This scenario is almost unwinnable but in a way it was a blessing in disguise when I saw what I was facing...

Harbinger of Menoth
Devout
Avatar
Knights Exemplar
6 Knights Errant
5 Exemplar Bastions
3 Exemplar Vengers
4 Choir
Exemplar Gravus
Vassal
Hierophant
P-Eiryss

URGH... Harbinger, had I faced this in a more central scenario (such as convergence) Id have been bricking myself. The Harbinger is primarily a scenario caster so the fact that we were playing such a difficult scenario was indeed an aid to me. Looking back at the game I later decided that Sorscha may have been a better choice on PAPER but without thinking so much about the scenario I went with the Old Witch as a sort of denial versus denial counter (had we played a normal scenario Witch would have been my choice without hesitation). The table once again had a large forest on one side with a building on the other and a few other scattered pieces around the edges. Paul won the roll for sides and gave me the side with the wood, score!

As we were setting up I also noticed that my flag would be smack in the middle of the forest on my side (double score!!) Paul set his exemplars to my right and the Avatar, Vengers & Harbinger to my left. I put the winter guard & Behemoth facing the Avatar, Witch & Scrappy again down the centre and the Devastator & Nyss down the right side, Eiryss also joined them.



In Paul’s first turn everything ran forwards and the Harby camped her focus, she was not going to go down easy with all that armour & her pet devout.

In my first turn I took a close look at how close the avatar was and ran my winter guard. The Devastator and Behemoth both ran and so did the Nyss. Eiryss sniped an Errant Knight. IF on the Winter Guard and Avatar of Scrappy.



In Paul’s turn 2 he could have come out to engage my forces but instead decided to keep his distance, he advanced the Harby and feated before placing the Devout next to her and the Vengers in front of her. The Avatar Gaze-ran towards my winter guard although the presence of the Behemoth made him think about his distancing. The Exemplars to my right secured their flag and the Bastions advanced to the fore while the Errants retreated slightly.

My turn two was severly hampered by the inevitable Harby feat but the advantage I had was that my army was more adept at fighting in medium distances than Pauls, so my own feat would help me nullify his own movement for the next turn and keep us in a relative stalemate for now. So that is what I did, the witch advanced to secure my flag and feated to just catch the Avatar and protect my Devastator who ran into the feat towards Paul’s flag. The Behemoth took some speculative shots at the Vassal and scattered onto the Choir killing two of them. The Nyss aimed and shot at the Bastions for about a quater of their total health thanks to life bond.



My Devastator was starting to worry Paul and it was basically what this turn was planned around. The Avatar tried to run towards him but was unable to due to my feat, so instead he walked and gazed. The Bastions then charged INTO my feat at the Devastator, 2 of them were killed in the ensuing damage rolls and the other three were bearly alive. Their charge attacks failed to damage the Devastator at all. The Vengers and the Harbinger stayed relatively still and the other Exemplars moved around a little bit. Eiryss moved out to my far left. The Avatar was also enlivened and safe passaged.

Dealing with an Avatar is never easy, but I had an ace up my sleave that goes by the name of Gorman, and he was in range after a quick check of my control area. I gave 1 to the devastator and upkept my spells. Devastator did his bulldoze shinanigans to create some space before sprinting off into the middle of the Exemplars around Paul’s flag to keep up the pressure. The Nyss advanced and killed two bastions, the last one was saved by Martyrdom. Eiryss killed an Exemplar Knight. Aiyana gifted Gorman magical attacks. The Winter guard advanced to get out of his way killed another choir member. The Behemoth moved to get out of Gormans way but this turn his AOEs hit nothing. Gorman then walked up and struck the Avatar between the butt cheeks with a blind grenade.



My Devastator was really worrying Paul now and if that was ever in doubt what he did next would prove it. The Avatar was enlivened again and ambled up to Gorman to force a terror test, which he passed. Eiryss disrupted the Behemoth. Harby caste crusaders call. The Exemplar Knights charged the Devastator... along with the Errants... and the Vengers... and Gravus... They did about 2/3 of the Devastators damage grid but thankfully for me he had one box left in his right arm and one in his cortex, that right am was all that was keeping him alive. The Devastator had just paid for itself a hundred times over by drawing out all that attention.

Now the obviously tempting thing here would be to Rain of Death on all those models but looking at the high armour of them all and the fact that Paul had not gone into base contact with many models I would only be able to hit a few with power 18s and most of the models (including all the cav) would only take power 9s, so I decided against it. My attention was focussed on the Avatar and I just needed the Devastator to occupy him long enough for me to remove the Avatar and allow me to collapse Paul’s entire left flank that was now supported by the Avatar alone. The issue here was that Pauls’ flag was on the right flank however the Harbinger was also camping on the left and supremacy here would let me put pressure on her. My Winter Guard advanced around the Avatar to pin him in place, they also took some shots at Eiryss but only took her down to one wound! Gorman advanced around the Avatar’s base to make sure he couldn’t enliven back out. The Behemoth then unleashed two blasting fists to the face for about 13 damage but no systems taken out. The Devastator bulldozed what he could away from him but mostly stayed still. The Nyss advanced to pick off the Exemplars that had been thrown out of the melee supported again by Eiryss.



Paul needed some good dice from his avatar now or my behemoth was going to rip his head off next turn, he got 2 focus... The Avatar then proceeded to roll very badly on its damage rolls even with an ancillary attack the Behemoth’s systems were untouched. Gravus decided to dig into his soul tokens and smashed the right arm off of the Devastator... oh crap. The Knights then charged back in and totalled him. The Vengers and the last Bastion ran to engage my nyss and the last errants regrouped around Paul’s flag. The Harbinger now had to move out into the middle of the table to try and avoid the encroaching Winter Guard along with her Devout and the last of the choir & hierophant. Eiryss moved to disrupt the Behemoth but ended too close to the Devout and was unable to take her shot due to technological intolerance.

Needless to say the Behemoth was having his share of the focus this turn, that Avatar was going down. The Nyss needed some help but I had nothing to support them with. I needed to find a way to break the stalemate or this was going to be a draw and time was on my mind. The Behemoth trashed the Avatar. The Winter Guard advanced and cleared out all the remaining choir & the Vassal. The Nyss charged into the Vengers but only caused a few points of damage, they did manage to kill the last bastion however.



Turn 6 and the seconds were ticking away. The Vengers swung and missed the Nyss, Gravus also joined the fray and the Harbinger even moved forwards to clear out some nyss with a cataclysm (although her main reason was to kill eiryss). Along with a Crusaders call the Harbinger was now left on 17 armour.

This was my one chance, if she didn’t die now this game would be a draw. Scrapjack moved up and I arced two gallows spells at the Harby to get the devout out of the way... but both missed! Gorman then moved up and threw a blind grenade at the Harby (in the hopes that he would shield guard this to leave her open to the Winter guard) but he also missed. Thankfully it only scattered one inch and blinded her anyway! My solos opened up into her causing a few points. The Behemoth then unleashed two aimed shots into her for a few more points. The Winter guard went last with paired combined shots taking her down to one health... I had one racketeer left... he shoots... he hits...and kills! I slumped back into my chair and let loose some loud profanities to the amusement of the nearby pressgangers. That was a draining game.



I later found out that the Harby can’t actually be blinded... sigh, I knew she couldn’t be knocked down but this was news to me. I went and found Paul to apologise but he agreed that it was an honest mistake that we both made and we left it at that, sorry again Paul.

After the most physically draining game of my life I was glad for the lunch hour but still spent most of it chasing down the last ten guys for the sweepstake... of which I found 5 ...

GAME THREE – Jim Lawrence – Circle of Orboros – Close Quaters

THIS IS THE ONE. That was my first thought when this was called out, my first thought when the whole room erupted with sounds of ‘OOOOOOOOHH’ from the people who knew the importance of this game. The first thing that people need to know about this game is the manner that we played it in which was always positive and friendly, whenever I corrected Jim or Jim corrected me about something it was never spiteful and we both freely admitted when we were wrong about something. Take note you players of ‘other’ systems that you CAN have a high stakes but friendly game, and it’s called Warmachine Here was Jim’s list:

Epic Krueger
Woldwarden
Woldwarden
Feral Warpwolf
Pureblood Warpwolf
Gorax
Druids of Orboros
Shift Stones
Lord of the Feast
Blackclad Wayfarer

Holy crap there is a lot of push and pull abilities in that army. Not to make the mistake that its point and click in the same way that a Haley gunline is but for an experienced player like Jim there are a bucket-load of ways to win scenarios with that. Now a key mistake that I made with this match-ups was truely schoolboy, I did not ask for his army lists I just asked which casters he had (P & E Krueger). Had I asked for his lists and seen that many heavy warbeasts I would have automatically taken Epic Sorscha on the basis that she has the damage potential to deal with that (on paper). But on the basis that I didn’t assume he would have that many I went with the Old Witch. Now the Witch could do this but what I had essentially done was pick my tricky caster to go up against a much much trickier list.

Jim won the roll for first turn... BALLS. He deployed his battle group centrally with the druids just behind everything, the LOTF would deploy to my right and the stones were also central. My Nyss were on the left, Winter guard on the right and battle group in the middle. Devastator was ready to sprint for my objective but the Behemoth was not, he was just to the left.



Jim sprinted everything across the table at me except the LOTF who danced around the centre line a little bit but still to my right, he’s going to hurt if I’m not careful.

I threw my upkeep spells up, the Winter Guard did bob and weave in anticipation of being hit by the LOTF. Nyss advanced and did a big CRA into a woldwarden but only did a few points. Eiryss shot the same one. Devastator ran forwards while Behemoth shot at the same warden doing a few more points. IF went up on the Winter Guard.



Jim moved Krueger forwards and feated, so all of my furthest forward models were pushed back and slowed down, but the keypart of this feat for Jim was that it pushed all of my previously spread out infantry into a tight bunch, he also caste Storm Wall to weaken my medium ranged weapons. Krueger also caste the Pureblood’s animus on the LOTF so he ignored my bonus for Iron Flesh and then shot my devastator to disrupt it. LOTF then moved and shot a Winter Guard with his crow (needing a 7, I had a slight prayer), he hit and proceeded to butcher 6 men. One of the Wardens then advanced and Lightening Stormed 3 more Winter Guard. The second Warden Stormed 2 Nyss and the rest of the models advanced to secure the control points.

At this point I realised how the rest of the game was going to go. I had to do crazy moves in order to get any amount of models back into those control zones who would then just be pushed out or thrown out, now the positioning of the Behemoth became vastly important as he should have been right next to the Devastator helping me claw back into the control zones instead of dancing around like a fairy trying to shoot things and look mean. The Remains of my winter guard advanced and blew away the LOTF with some CRAs. The Nyss advanced and took a shot at the Pureblood along with the Behemoth totalling about half its damage boxes. The Witch feated, not for the power 14s which Jim’s beasts could shrug off, but to stop him power attacking to throw the Devastator out. Not that this would stop the druids force bolting me or the wardens/Krueger using telekinesis... but it was something. Devastator moved 2 inches back inside the control point and the Scrapjack then slammed him a further 3 inches deeper into the control point.



Jim’s 3rd turn just picked up where he left off and the Druids advanced to knock the Devastator out of the area, the pureblood advanced and sprayed Gorman to Death and also did 10 damage points to the Witch. The Wardens continued to throw Lightening storms at me and Kruger re-caste Storm Wall. Jim scored one control point

It was looking bad for me at this point, leaving the behemoth so far from the control point was really hurting me now because the Devastator would not be protected from power attacks next turn. I thought for a few moments but there was only really one option. The Devastator and Scrappy each took 3 focus and the Behemoth took 1. Devastator charged the Pureblood and took it down to two health (although once again... I did not ask about this or Id have made an effort to finish him off) Scrapjack charged at the Feral and did a few points but had I had the common sense to ask then I would have made him finish the Pureblood off instead (face palms). Behemoth ran into the control zone. One winter Guard managed to make it inside at DEF 17 and the Nyss received a charge order to engage Jim’s forces and get one man inside the area. Eiryss also sprinted across the table to get inside too. Basically all hands to the pump... except the witch who ran away from danger



I was resigned to the outcome at this point but kept watching intently just in case. Jim started with the Krueger who threw up the Gorax animus on both warp wolves and healed the pureblood’s lost aspects. The Pureblood hurled the Devastator out. The Druids bolted the Behemoth out and killed the Winter Guard on a 6,6, to hit roll. I just looked and Jim and said ‘when stuff like that happens at a time like that you just know it’s not meant to be’. The Feral Wolf hurled out the Scrapjack and killed the Nyss Hunter. The Gorax then animused himself and killed Eiryss and that was game.



I was very disappointed in my performance in that game but had nothing but respect for the way Jim conducted his own game. In the time since then I have gone over the game quite literally 100+ times in my head to find all the little mistakes I made (and there were quite a few) but at the same time I know that I am at the level where I can beat anyone given a fair chance. I also know that I did have the potential to win this game, I just didnt use it as well as I could and if you are even slightly off your game against players of this calibre they will punish you for it. I look forward to playing Jim again sometime because both matches I have greatly relished and enjoyed. But be sure Jim, I will get you some day


GAME FOUR – Huw Jenkins – Khador – Outflank, Outfight, Outlast

The night after day one was one of the best social evenings of an event that I have ever been to, it didn’t need to be wild and drunken ( ) and it didn’t even need to be an organised party, we just had all the right people in one place for some relaxed drinks and a laugh then onto a nice curry house before going back to one of the hotel bars for some more late night geek-talk. It’s rare for all of the warmachine community to be together in one place and it made for a really enjoyable night, and this is one of the parts of the upcoming ETC that I am really looking forward to. Anyhow back for day two and I needed to start re-building my tournament challenge after that crushing loss in game 3. Next up Huw, I’ve played Huw before at the Cardiff Carnage last year and I don’t think I’ve met a more light hearted but still competitive player either before or since. I was looking forward to facing Huw again although this would be a totally different challange as last time he played circle and this time he was mirror matching me with my own race:

Epic Irusk
Devastator (bonded)
Devastator
Doom Reavers
6 Kossite Woodsmen
6 Ironfang Pikemen + UA
10 Winter Guard Rifle Corp
Winter Guard Mortar
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich
Koldun Lord
Alexia Ciannor & the Risen

Looking at Huw’s lists and knowing what he likes to play I was fairly certain that he would choose Epic Irusk, and knowing that the game would be about stopping that brick getting onto those objectives and wearing them down the Old Witch had to be my choice, I dearly wanted to get Sorscha onto the table at least once but she wasn’t going to be up to this task. I had no idea how I was going to stop a PAIR of Devastators but honest to god my thoughts on them at the time were just ‘I’ll make it up as I go along’ but knew I’d probably just have to try and ignore them as best I could unless the Behemoth found himself in a good position to charge one.

Huw won the roll for first turn, not a great start, and he deployed very much in the brick fassion. One Devastator was staring at either scoring zone , pikes across the centre with doom reavers just behind and rifle corp in a line behind that, mortar and Irusk were just off to the right and Alexia was on the left flank. I Deployed my Nyss to the left, a few well placed CRAs should get rid of Alexia nice and quickly, they also had my Devastator supporting them to face off against Huw’s Devastator. My Winter Guard took the right flank and they would probably be taking the brunt of Huw’s assault from the doom reavers and pikemen, my winter guard were also supported by the Behemoth for that right control point. Eiryss was in a wood to the right out of sight and the Witch stood with scrappy in the centre.



In Huw’s turn everything came barrelling forwards although he did decide to shield wall instead of run with the pikes, and the rest of the units behind them stayed in line. The Devastators went full pelt at the control zones helped by a 3 focus energiser. The Mortar was empowered with Fire For Effect and ran to take up position behind a wall.

I had to halt Huw’s advance this turn or all those tough infantry would be swarming the control points. My infantry sprinted forwards to meet Huw’s first wave and the Old Witch feated to make sure only his devastators could contest the zones. My Upkeep spells also went up. Eiryss advanced to the edge of her wood and instead of shooting the Mortar she just shot the crewman standing behind it because he wasn’t close enough to get the cover bonus, bye bye fire for effect



In Huw’s turn he pressed up to my feat as close as he could, losing a pike man to check the distancing. The Devastators advanced to the centre of the control zones and then the Rifle Corp opened up killing about 5 -6 winter guard and a couple of nyss. Irusk also feated to counter mine and slow my own advance next turn. I noticed that Alexia was positioned close to the front lines so I might be able to get a shot off at her.

In my turn I was mainly focussed on trying to get inside those control zones but knew that if the Behemoth went into the right hand zone he would easily be close enough to the edge to just bulldoze back out again, so I loaded him with focus to take some speculative shots, devastator got 1 focus to run with and I upkept my spells. Gorman advanced to black oil the bonded devastator facing my nyss but missed due to its increased defence (bonded give it +2), the nyss then followed up and did a big CRA into Alexia which double 1ed... I was not happy. My Devastator ran into the pit and bulldozed Huw’s a bit. Winter guard advanced and shot off a rocket at the rifle corp. The Witch retreated and scrapjack stayed out of charge range of the Pikes. The Behemoth advanced and took his shots into the middle of Huw’s brick killing a few rifle corp and a doom reaver, but also forcing a tough test on the Pike men captain with a boosted damage roll, but the bugger passed! What I hadn’t noticed was that I spent so much time being annoyed at Gorman and the Nyss that I had gone over my time for this turn! Which only fuelled my frustration because I had two more focus on the Behemoth for a second shot but I was unable to call my extra 5 minutes so Huw had a turn...



If Huw ever wanted a chance to clinically beat me then this was it. His Kossite came on onto the left hand side. The Pikemen charged and mini feated, 2 tried for scrapjack but were half an inch out of melee range, the rest went for the Behemoth and caused a few points of damage but did not knock it down. They then reformed into a line infront of the Behemoth. The Bonded Devastator picked up and threw my devastator, but instead of just throwing him out Huw chose to throw it at one of my nyss, it hit and killed it but this left my Devastator just inside the control zone. The Risen charged and killed the nyss who were contesting the zone except one. Rifle Corp opened up and killed a few nyss and some more of my winter guard. Huw then activated Irusk and threw a boosted airburst at Eiryss which hit, but failed to kill her, this left Irusk on 0 focus. The Doom reavers then ran through Huw’s lines to engage Eiryss, the Behemoth and a few of my remaining winter guard. The Devastator to my right just milled around a bit. Huw scored a control point this turn.

Things were going downhill for me slowly now, I couldn’t win on scenario because there were too many bodies to keep off the objectives, so I just went back to my basics and started trying to kill as much as possible to see if I could force an opportunity. As I started my turn Huw spotted his Kossites that he deployed hiding behind a building where he couldn’t see them and found it funny. Admittedly I was still a little miffed at my turn before or I’d probably have let him activate them, he did have two minutes left on his clock before he ended his turn. I loaded up scrapjack with 3 focus and the Behemoth with 3 focus in his guns, I saw a half chance. The Winter Guard advanced and cleared out all but one of the Doom Reavers. Scrapjack then went in and cleared out the pikemen infront of the Behemoth and stayed engaged with the remaining 5. Behemoth aimed at Irusk and hit with the first shot taking him down to 7 hit points but the second shot missed. Gorman aim bombed the Bonded Devastator with black oil and hit this time. Aiyana kissed the Devastator and Holt killed Alexia and then the Koldun Lord. The Nyss charged the Devastator and cleaved about a 1/3 of its health off but no systems. Eiryss also shot at Irusk but caused no damage (I made a damage roll). The Witch stayed at a safe distance but moved to the right taking my Devastator out of control. My Devastator picked himself up and plodded back into the area but with a building to his back to stop bulldozing shoving me back out so easily.



Huw’s attention now turned to keeping Irusk safe, but he was torn between that and keeping up the pressure on me, the Behemoth’s shots had helped me just by making Huw think a bit more. Irusk took refuse near to the wall with his Mortar and camped 4 focus, he spent the other 3 on an energiser. The Pikes shield walled around scrapjack and stabbed him for about 9 damage but did not knock him down either. The Rifle Corp continued to whittle away at my infantry units, I had about 5 Winter Guard left now along with 1 Nyss near to the blinded Devastator. Huw cleared out the right hand area to score a second control point... he also killed Eiryss with a shot from Joe. The Kossites ran into the left hand zone to help the Devastator secure it.

As I surveyed the carnage I saw one last chance, that chance had a name, and his name was Scrapjack. Scrapjack was within 11 inches of Iruskso I upkept Avatar and loaded him up with 4 focus, it would be just enough for 2 fully boosted power 12 attacks and Irusk was on armour 19. I had to clear out the pikemen infront of him to clear his charge lane first. The last nyss charged the centre of the pikemen in the back and killed him to break the shield wall up. My winter guard then manoeuvred around the remaining pikes and spayed them to death behind their shields. Scrapjack would have his chance. He went for the kill and lunged with his first attack which hit and did about 5 points of damage. The second claw struck, it also hit and decapitated Irusk where he stood.



Sheesh that was a hard fought game. Huw was annihilating me for the most part of that. I couldn’t keep his guys from swarming the objectives properly and to win on scenario for me would have taken us to full time so I was a bit lucky that Huw gave me that half chance by Airbursting Eiryss. I might ahve had a better chance at clearing Huw out if I had kept Scrapjack a bit further forwards, but by doing that he would have been inrange of those Pikemen and I was quite warey of Huw just deciding to throw Battle Lust on them and bye bye Scrapjack.

I was back on track now with 3 wins and just 1 loss. Onto game 4!

GAME 5 – Richard Loxam – Cryx – Destruction

A slightly different sound accompanied this match-up. It was laughter and shouts of ‘wehay!’ because people knew that we didn’t want to be playing each other, Rich is a fellow member of Team Octopii and is about as competitive and ambitious as I am. We actually decided to stop playing any games for about 2 months before the Masters due to the fact that we knew this game might come up and we didn’t want to just be re-playing something that we had already done in practice. Destruction would make this game different to any other we had previously played because it is an odd scenario and losing it can leave you feeling robbed. On the other side of this scenario if you have been pinned to the back of the table having gone second you can feel like you never had a chance at all to get to the opponents structures... unless you play Cygnar anyway. I was expecting to face Epic Skarre but Rich actually went with this:

Warwitch Deneghra
Deathjack
Nightwretch
Nightwretch
10 Bane Thralls + UA
Banelord Tartarus
5 Black Ogrun Boarding Party
Warwitch Siren
Skarlock
10 Nyss Hunters

Now there is no way in hell that I was going to play Epic Sorscha against Rich’s Cryx because she just can’t stop the tricks and I doubt she can even fight against the tricks at all. I wouldn’t exactly say I was relieved to fight Deneghra over Skarre, in fact I’m not really sure how to comment on the match-up except to say that we both were hoping to avoid this match up as we knew it would knock at least one of us out of the top ten which is where we both wanted to be.

I won the roll for first turn. There was a large forest in the centre of the table and a building to my right, a small forest to my left and just a single barricade on Rich’s side which was off to my right. My Winter Guard were to the right, Nyss to the left. Witch and battle group in the centre. I had a sneaky plan to help me with Denny’s upkeeps. Epic Eiryss was sat right on my board edge ready to shoot off any crippling grasps or parasites, which seemed to amuse Rich Rich deployed his Bane to my right, Nyss and Ogruns to my left, Deathjack was sat behind the wood. Denny was sat in the centre with one arc node on either side of her.



On my first turn everything advanced, I was careful to keep my nyss half an inch back from the furthest point that Rich’s could move & shoot. Winter guard bob and weaved incase Rich’s crippling grasp missed. Jacks ran. Upkeep spells went up as usual.

Rich gave 2 additional focus to Deathjack and everything sprinted forwards, Orguns ran in front of the Nyss, Banes advanced level with Deathjack who crippling grasped my Winter Guard. Two Nyss did stand in front of the Ogruns but the rest of the unit was behind, I got the feeling he was trying to tempt me out.



I chose not to upkeep Ironflesh, but I did upkeep Avatar. Eiryss shot off Crippling Grasp. The Winter Guard advanced and sprayed 7 Bane Thralls to death, Rich managed to fail every single tough roll... I also put a couple of points onto the Deathjack. The Nyss moved to the very edges of their range and CRAed the two front most Nyss to Death. The Witch then moved to the left to join them, Ironflesh went up on the Winter Guard again and she feated. I knew I couldn’t engage proplerly on both sides at once so I decided to wait for the Deathjack to come to me and protect my left side with the feat for now so that the Orguns and enemy Nyss wouldn’t overwhelm my own unit. The Devastator moved towards the Deathjack and the Behemoth was about 4 inches behind him and slightly to the right. I made sure that Eiryss, Joe and my Winter Guard banner stayed as far back as they possibly could to make it such an effort to kill them that it wouldn’t be worthwhile.

Now I expected to be taking Denny’s feat this turn, it seemed the logical thing to me but then I’m not a Cryx player and Rich does not play Cryx attritionally unless he absolutely has to. After looking at the Old Witch to see if he could get at her with an arc node this turn, he didn’t feat. He kept looking over at the Ogruns in relation to the Witch but I already knew they were out of range for two reasons, firstly they didn’t start in my control area (which is 14 inches) and they have a 14 inch walking/shooting threat, secondly Gorman had dropped a smoke bomb on her making her stealthy through prowl. An Arc node came bounding forwards and Denny arced a venom at the Witch, it was out of range. The Ogruns advanced, one died to feat damage and the other 4 were left on very low health, rich then declared a CRA at the Witch and was out of range... His Nyss retreated around the left corner objective. Deathjack re-crippled the Winter Guard and the Bane thralls charged into them killing a few with Cursed attack rolls.



I again dropped Iron Flesh and Upkept Avatar. But this time decided I would spend my energy on trying to take out the Cryx lynchpin, the Deathjack. 3 Focus went into the Behemoth and the other 4 stayed on the Witch. Eiryss shot Crippling Grasp off again and the winter guard advanced to kill some more of the Thalls. I think there was the banner left alive. A Scrappy then moved closer to the Behemoth and the Witch sent a boosted Gallows through him and dragged the Deathjack 5 inches closer. Behemoth then charged, boosted the attack roll, hit and caused 16 damage (HULK SMASH!) I was a little fortunate with the damage placement also as it his Deathjacks movement, which meant that I wouldn’t have to boost the second fist, I could therefore buy a 3rd attack and completely scrap the machine. That was huge and basically gave me attritional control of the game. My Nyss and Aiyana & Holt then finished of Rich’s Ogruns and shot the Arc node off the close by Nightwretch.

Rich now had one option left, to kill the objectives. The second Wretch came bounding forwards and Denny arced parasite onto my objective, she then feated and channelled a venom through at the objective for some damage. The Nyss came forwards and did a big CRA leaving the marker on 3 damage points. Tartarus advanced and threshered to get a few bane thralls back.



Obviously this turn would be limited by Rich’s feat but I had to do what I could. I was also wary of time and I knew it would be tight for me to pin down Denny (which is nigh on impossible) or to get across to Rich’ objectives. I upkept Avatar for free and Camped. Behemoth shot Rich’s objectives doing not much. My Nyss aimed/advanced and shot down 5 of Richs and Holt took a chunk out of the Nightwretch. Devastator plodded two inches. Winter Guard killed the new Bane Thralls. Eiryss shot my left objective to take parasite off (I figured at armour 20 it had a chance to survive next turn). She then rolled damage and caused a single point anyway! The Witch moved out centrally and camped focus.

Rich was losing resources to hit my objectives with quite quickly so he spent a few minutes thinking up a plan to maximise his damage potential. Minutes that were slowly frustrating me but I gave Rich the benefit of the belief he wasn’t time wasting (just to be clear there, he was not time wasting, but it was frustrating me anyway). The 3 Nyss CRAed the objective with 2 health left, he needed a 9... and got it. The Banelord charged a winter guardsmen and cursed my objective in an attempt to turn him into a Thrall to charge my objective with, but Tartarus missed his charge attack. Denny then ran away around the back of the table and around the forest.



Now that I was a point down it was time to start getting nervous, attritionally the game was in my hands completely but thanks to that roll from the Nyss this game was far from over. I gave one focus to each jack and everything spread out. Behemoth aimed and shot Rich’s objective again but what I should have done was run into a charging position for the next turn. Scrapjack, the devastator and Aiyana & Holt sprinted for the left objective, tying up the last Nightwretch and the Siren in the process. while my Nyss finished off Rich’s. My Winter Guard hunted down the Thrall banner and got in the way of Tartarus to stop a direct charge. Eiryss sprinted into the wood.

Rich had one last chance at the objective, Denny herself. She charged a winter guardsmen to get close enough and measured her control area, she was out of range so she camped on her focus. Tartarus moved around to the objective and put 7 damage onto it.



This was my chance to take her out, I had to take it. Behemoth was given 3 focus. The Winter guard disengaged and shot Denny for no damage. Eiryss advanced and shot her in the back stripping her of focus, but again no damage. Behemoth then moved into base contact and boosted his first back strike which hit and caused about 11 damage. I boosted the second one which hit and succeeded to squash her into the dirt.

That was a titanic struggle from start to end. Even after I had massacred most of Rich’s forces he still made a match of it by threatening my objectives right till the very end. Top class game and I was thrilled to have won it, although still felt a little bit bad that it meant that Rich would finish outside the top ten and ok it’s not the end of the world but it was always our aim to both finish inside the top then and be challenging for best in our factions.

SO, with one game to go and only one loss the possibility of a high finish was starting to creep into my thinking again, but if that game was my hardest yet game 6 would only be tougher.


GAME 6 – Jon Webb – Cryx – The Gauntlet

I was so relieved when I heard this match-up for game 6. Almost everyone was shattered after 5 games and to get such a great guy and a great opponent to play in the last game made me feel much better about playing it. There were a fair few people on 4 wins and a lot of them were quite difficult opponents, the game next door to mine in game 5 was particularly cringe worthy as two of the Welsh boys were going for each other’s throats. I remember looking over and saying to Rich ‘we used to be like that’ and it just shows how much we have matured in a year to have such a well mannered game even when the stakes were high. This isn’t to cause offence to said players next door to us but if they are reading this, take note of what I said in my Game 3 report that you can have high stakes games and play them in a gentlemanly fashion which is shown by both my Games 3 and 5 in particular. Anyhow back to the game, I was pretty chuffed to get to play Jon again and I knew it would be a game to remember, he used:

Epic Skarre
Harrower
Leviathan
Nightwretch
10 Satyxis Raiders + UA
10 Blackbane’s Ghost Raiders
Captain Rengrave
Warwitch Siren
Skarlock Thrall
Pistol Wraith
Gerlack Slaughterborn
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls

Now looking over Jon’s lists I had a very strong feeling that he was going to use Skarre, mainly because I know how much work he put into painting that stunning army in the weeks before the Masters. So anticipating having to face Skarre I decided one last time to play the Old Witch because as I said for game 5, Sorscha just can’t handle some of the Cryx shenanigans.

Jon won the roll for first turn and set up his battle group just to my right with all his infantry just to the left but still mostly central. I set the winter guard to my left, battle group in the centre and Nyss to the right. Eiryss also took up position in a wood to the right.



Jon’s entire army came bounding forwards, ghosts were interspaced with satyxis. Admonition went up on the Harrower and Deathward on the Leviathan.

Looking at the pace in Jon’s army I knew I was going to be forced into a turn one feat again, so with this in mind my army went straight out to meet Jon’s and it was protected by my feat, IF went up on the Winter Guard and Avatar on Scrappy.



Jon sighed a bit at my feat because he knew he would have to back-peddle a little bit before my winter guard leapt onto his infantry. The Satyxis and Ghosts retreated about 6 or 7 inches. Skarre feated on herself, Gerlack, The Harrower and then on my Behemoth and the Devastator. She also arced black spot onto the Nyss before the Leviathan opened up on them killing 5. Gerlack ran in front of my Winter guard (taking no feat damage ) to use his reach to minimise the amount of shooting I could get off. The Harrower advanced slightly.

My jacks each took 1 focus to run with and I didn’t upkeep Iron Flesh (I would re-cast it as I needed all the range I could get on those infantry). The Jacks ran forwards onto the edge of my control zone. Aiyana gave the Winter Guard magical attacks who then advanced and opened up into Jon’s infantry (being very careful to avoid Gerlack) I was still able to kill 4 satyxis (with brilliant to-hit rolls) and 7 of the Ghost Raiders including Blackbane himself thanks to the application of a few rockets. The Witch threw a Murder of Crows down next to Behemoth and Jon took a deep sigh, now I assumed this was because he then couldn’t get to scrapjack who was stood at the back of it, and scrapjack would be important in slaughtering all that infantry next turn. I was mistaken... Eiryss E-Bombed Jon’s battle group after the Nyss killed his Nightwretch.



Now as soon as Skarre charged the Behemoth and Jon said ‘I cast backlash on the Behemoth’ the biggest penny dropped before me that I have ever seen and I just sat back in my chair, put my hands to be head and shouted ‘oh sh*t!’ Now I knew what Jon had sighed at the Murder of Crows for before I placed it because if it had gone 3 inches to the left and been in front of the Behemoth Jon would have been unable to get his Satyxis to charge it, but as it was I had pretty much gifted him my jack on a silver platter. Skarre began to cut herself for more powerful attacks with her sword after her horn attack knocked me down. She caused 4 damage to the Witch. There were 7 Satyxis left which equated to 14 damage from their whips alone, they also have horns to attack with and then there was the rest of Jon’s entire army to hit a knocked down Behemoth, I was more than a little worried. Now I only remember the next set of events because I was watching SO intently that they are now burned into my memory. Gerlack went next and caused another point to the Witch. The Satyxis then charged and Power Swelled but 3 of the whips failed to crack the ARM 21 leaving me on 3 health... The horns failed. Leviathan shot me and caused another point... down to two. Skarlock caste blood rain which caused no damage but left corrosion on the Behemoth which would cause a backlash point, so if we counted that already I was down to 1 health... Rengrave shot me, no damage, Pistol Wraith shot me, no damage. Harrower shot me, no damage. All that was left was the 3 ghost raiders who’s path was now blocked because of my cloud effect, Jon would have to take the damage rolls but at this stage it was all or nothing. The Ghosts went in but the power 8 managed to kill the ghost who made it into melee range... and it was over... I lived on 2 wounds...

I was shaking a little bit when we rolled corrosion and she was left on a single wound... Needless to say Scrapjack was given 4 focus and Avatar to kill Skarre with which he promptly did.



In that moment I was the luckiest mo fo in the room and I have absolutely no doubt of that in my mind. Okay if I had spotted it and placed the Murder AOE correctly it wouldn’t have been an issue and the game would have continued. But WHAT a way to end an event I was completely on the edge of my seat biting my nails and cracking my knuckles I was nervous as hell! Absolute pleasure to play Jon again and as I said to him at the time I’ve been that lucky against him now that I must be due some apocalyptic behind whooping next time.

My besieged Behemoth


And just for proof...


So at the end of the days gaming I managed to walk away with 5 wins and 3rd place overall, I was the highest placing Khador player and actually the highest placing warmachine player so I could be nothing but happy with my performance in the end. This weekend had everything, the highs, the lows and the horrendously good luck which you will ALWAYS need if you are going to win a war gaming event or do well in a national competition. Any player who doesn’t acknowledge that fact is severely deluded. Thank you to my opponents for 6 fantastic games, thank you to the Press Gangers who ran the event, you did a great job lads!

Thank you finally for reading this report, I hope it has been entertaining.

And the mind games begin... Oh Jamie you!!!

Yep thats right Jamie,

im lucky enough to be undefeated in all my games at the masters since Game 06, i did draw tho with andy harris in 2009 (good tough game). I think this year will be a different story....i think i was quite lucky in the masters early years as i had been playing wm since it came out and knew every stat line, trick, combo, i used 3 different factions so i knew all threat ranges etc etc....so i think i had a head start in alot of the tournaments, ... also some of the masters players only picked the game up when hordes came out (i had already about 3-4 years of wm under my belt by then).

With the mk2 rules and different stats i think we are all on a much more level playing field so im not expecting a tourny win this year, which is kinda cool as last year alot of people were desperate to see me lose, so this year i haven't got the pressure of having to win, so i can enjoy my games more. It would be good to play u as our game in 2009 was a bit crap sorchsa v sorscha, virtually identical lists etc.....i wont be playing khador this year...so if we meet it should be more interesting!

See u fri
Jimbo

Hi again mate, I do hope we get to play again this weekend. I don't think people want to see you lose, its just that British people have a tendency to support the underdog. Which is everyone when you're undefeated!

I didn't want to see you lose ... unless it was against me

BTW a Draw = Lose ... so you lost a game



So another on the Cryx Band Wagon then?

He's using Morvahna warden spam. And people think I'm joking

Ah the old Birnham wood to Dunsinane trick. Hope he's got lots of templates then

I'm with ya Jimbo! With having the reset, so many of the tricks and combo's that we learned for MkI are gone and MkII has brought such a big bag of new tricks.
Also for myself, I have only had one game against hordes this year and that was at the Welsh Open so .

Well, I was nice being second best player and top Khador player for a year but this year, I'm just gonna sit back and enjoy the games!

Love it!! This is like a polite NET version of a boxing weigh in and stare out

Glad I'm not the only one playing the "well, its MKII and I haven't had the time/energy to break the game open yet". Lets leave it to those young pups hey.

Hell, based on the fluff I should be sat in my cave laughing every time I lose a game as its what we do in the story every week. I'll get you next time gadget!

The lack of smack talk in this thread is sad. Even chess tournaments have more bravado on display.

"I'm going to beat you all into the carpet with my superior gaming skills" ...

Feel better?

Getting a draw and effective loss is a loss, but im still undefeated by any player in the masters!


Ok, shrink head size to normal as i'll probably get slaughtered this time. I may still play cryx i used cryx in the 1st 2 nationals (pgoreshade and edenny back in mk1)....its funny as ednny seems to be really popular now, and she's still great (especially for scenarios) but she's lost alot when compared to the mk1 version. Im surprised no one really played her years ago......the combo of rengrave/ pirates and marked for death was awesome....completely broken in fact, tenebrous exile was a massive spell aswell.

So may still play cryx but i own, khador, cryx, circle, legion, skorne and menoth, so im having trouble deciding which way to go........im not keen on cryx as it sounds like theres gonna a load of cryx, and i hate playing against the same faction, i may try the old broken 6 million inches.charge/sidestep/molik karn stuff this time.

What will u be plaing john? Molik Karn and co? U don't fancy having a go with wm this time? I used Khador last time, and didn't really notice any drop in performance compared to the superior hordes mechanic (i'll probably get flamed for saying that)!

lets be fair here Jim, you had Epic Vlad.... MKi Epic Vlad & Doom Reavers. And then P Sorscha.. not much more needs to be said there does it about effective armies?

I'd say they are pretty balanced (joking obviously)!

I have 2 Skorne Lists ... and yes one is eMakeda + Karn. The other one however is the one I'll probably use more over the weekend as its a lot more fun and enjoyable to play, which is a Mordikaar list.


I did think about Khador TBH. Trolls were dumped as I've had almost zero practice with them since x-mas. Khador did intrest me ... I love eButcher & pIrusk so may have used those as an alternative to all those people taking one trick eSorscha lists with Mercs, however little time to get up to speed with them since being back into Hordes since Feb.

Podcast, Wedding plans, Unchated Seas, etc... has taken up too much time, so have to stay with what I know best. Not all off us can claim to be masters of so many factions

Will be good to catch up with some of the people we don't see often.

i didn't claim to be masters of all those factions, i just said i owned them!

Will be well funny to see u guys again, catch u tomorrow.

Man I get a bite every time ... I should be a fisherman

Game one is up folks, game 2 to follow today also! (fingers crossed)

By the way the pics for game one are all miles to blury you literally cant see anything so god knows what I was doing with the Camera.

I read ur battle report Jamie, good stuff.

I very much appreciate the way u play (solid to the rules but polite, and sporting). Best way, also appreciate your grace when the game ended as i know it was an important game as if you got by me, you would have a shot at the tiltle.

If you keep going the way you are you'll probably get to the top of the hill one day! But if you make it to the summit, you'll find me there waiting.............

I wouldn't have it any other way mate

Awesome reports as always Jamie, just wish I'd been there.

Can't wait for the ETC now.

Phil

Thanks Phil as always its good to know people appreciate the time I put into these

Game 4 is up btw.

Great reads so far. I'm learning a lot as the Witch's play style is different to most of the other Khador casters.

Really enjoying them.

Also can't wait for early July now.

Dude!, just finished reading up to game four, its the first time i've ever had oppertunity to read a battle report of one of my own games again someone. its a funny experience to see how someone else saw the game.

with regards to the game itself, i've the pleasure of being able to say that with the exception of Jim Lawrence i've played some of the best players on our little cuircit here in the UK, and this was by far one of the best games i've ever taken part in. usually im happy with about mid-table at these events but i came to the Nats hoping to prove to myself that i had improved as a player since last year, and i think after that game, despite the result i can feel slightly proud of myself. despite your Double 1's and my being an behind over the timing!

awsome work on the reports though dude!, a brilliant read.

Game 5s up lads.