Absent

I got nothing.

I try to come up with interesting things to write about, but find myself deleting the post in the middle of some long spiel or rant. I really am trying to figure out a neat story or analysis. I just can't think of anything yet. Soon, very soon I will have a stroke of genius and will then write a post which will blow your minds.

Until then.....

Cryx Win It!

The last LGS event prior to Summer Rampage is officially over.

It was a long three week campaign which resulted in a Cryxian conquest. That's right folks. I took it, the whole shebang.

Game 1 vs Trollbloods. We roll and get 750. Mortenebra vs Calandra. I won initiative, ran everything forward, move up Mortey, put a few upkeep's on the DJ & NM both.

Trolls. He runs up. Tries to get as close to me as possible. Puts gobber smoke in front of Calandra and feats. The nightmare advances.

Turn 2 Cryx. Mortenebra casts Deathrace on the DJ, terminal velocity, and feat. DJ charges the champs and reigns death upon the extremely tough Champs (tough on 3+.) The nightmare advances due to death race avoiding free strikes thanks to the upkeep spell. The NM is inside the gobber smoke and has a charge lane to Calandra. The NM activates, charges the big fat gypsy lady, she dies.

Game 2 vs John the Mennite (JTM). We roll and get 500 points. Skarre vs the Harbinger. I win initiative. Run everything forward but the skarlock. Use the focus factory.

Menoth: he runs the avatar forward, uses the gaze of Menoth. Choir puts no shooty on the avatar. His bastions advance. Harby casts martyrdom.

Cryx turn 2: Tartarus curses the avatar, charges and deals a lot of damage. Bane knights charge and wipe the avatar out. A pistol wraith kills the choir leader but harby take a few licks to keep him around. Skarlock generates more focus and everyone else moves forward. The dj is poorly positioned in the trees, my bad.

Menoth: He charges Tartarus with the bastions and the sauce survives. A bane knight is hit but doesn't die, another shifts dealing a ton of damage causing the Harby to take some more damage. Harby feats, casts martyrdom again.

Turn 3 Cryx. Skarre goes first. Moves forward so as not to have the Harby in los. Feats and sac strikes the bastion leader boosting damage. Harby martyers. Tartarus curses, threshers and doesn't take any damage from the witches feat. Bane knight charge, 2 die to the feat, the rest decimate the bastions. Harby takes some more damage from martyrdom but has to let a few bastions die. Everyone else then moves forward and positions so as not to have los to the witch. Dj is still in terrible position but casts Blood rain, corrodes a bastion. The pistol wraith continues on the right flank.

Turn 3 Menoth: a bastion dies to corrosion. JTM can't martyr because he hasn't cast it yet. It's not looking so hot for John. A devout charges the DJ and does no damage. Bastions kill Tartarus and a bane knight or two allowing a few shadow shifts. Harby moves forward behind the bastions and casts cataclysm and kills a bane knight. I shadow shift into Harby with P+S 16 weapon master and kill her dead. Martyrdom did most the work for me.

Game 3 vs Cygnar. We roll and get 750. My Mortenebra list vs epic Stryker. I win initiative. Run everything up except Morty. She moves, puts sacral ward on the dj and the ghostly armor spell on the nightmare.

Cygnar turn 1. I wasn't very smart and put the Cankerworm too close to the sword knights. The piper gave them an insane charge range and they chopped the little guy into pieces. Ayana and Holt almost knocked out a node and the Black 13 killed 1/3 of my bile thralls and a Necrotech. Stryker advances, casts a spell at a pistol wraith behind cover and misses. The Nightmare advances through a forest towards Stryker.

Turn 2 Cryx. Upkeep spells with skarlock and combine. Morty moves up, feats, casts deathrace on the DJ and terminal velocity. The Deathjack charges the b13. They die, deathrace triggers, nightmare advances trying to get a bead on Stryker. Rowdy counter charges but only deals 5 pips to column 4. (Whew.) Nightmare activates and moves into melee range with Stryker. Stryker dies.

The tournament is over and I win!

It was a fantastic series of games. The first place prize is a free paint job by the LGS owener's wife. She's pretty good so I'm way excited. I'm going to have her paint Molik Karn.

-Cheers-

Cryx For The Win!

I won the LGS tournament last night.

Battle reports are almost finished. I should have them posted tonight.

LGS Random Tourney

Yes, I'm playing in another tournament. It's a LGS tourney, simple caster kill scenarios but the kick is that we had to bring 3 lists. A 350, 500 & 750. When we hit the table vs our oppo we roll a d3 to determine the point value.

Not certain on who I should run I decided to go with a few casters I haven't run in a while, or ever for that matter.

At 750 I chose my favorite caster Mortenebra. She's amazing. The tricks she can pull with her battle group are exceptionally powerful and can catch the most experienced player unaware.

For 500 I chose Skarre. Paired with the Deathjack and infantry spam I should be more than able to kill everything on the board assuming I don't simply bomb the caster first. She's solid and my Haley counter.

And finally 350. Arguably my least favorite and the point level with which I've had the least success. For this beauty I threw subtlety out the frig'n window and went 100% Velveeta. I'm talking the Witch Coven of Garghlast with a fist full of nodes. What's my strategy? Oh I don't know, run one node up. Cast stygian abyss three times at their caster and laugh my head off.

Sigh, I'm going to win the entire frig'n tournament. Even if that means making a few people cry and pull their eyes out due to the cheesiness that is Cryx.

-Cheers-

Oh No, I Suck Again!

Drove two hours for a tournament in Salt Lake City. I got whooped. Games were real close but as the old cliche states, "Close only counts in horseshoes and hand-grenades."

I hate it when people lose and try to justify why they lost, I'm not gonna do it, probably because I'm pretty tired and running on empty about now. Basically I was too fidgety with my armies. I was moderately aggressive but not aggressive enough. I felt bogged down by the terrain, mostly due to the Bloodgorgers, not their fault by the way.

First game was a loss due to time running out and the Circle player had his ambuscade guys on a victory condition so he won by scenario. I had just feated with epic Gaspy and was about to charge Baldur with Slaughterborn, Tartarus and a handful of Bane Knights. Oh well, so sad, too bad.

Game two vs Cryx was pretty fun, but everyone knows how much I HATE same faction battles. I lost this one by scenario too, we pretty much gutted each other's army and by the end there wasn't much on the table. He ran pGaspy I ran the epic version. Time ran out and he had output more damage on the objective than I had by about 8 damage points. I don't remember the exact tally but that's neither here-nor-there.

Game three vs Skorne was a blast. I was tired of running eGaspy as I'd not had much success with him so far. He ran Mordikar (who is awesome by the way!) We duked it out a bit, I took over a few of his units, he killed a lot with the Venators ghost sighted by the Extoller. Ultimately I won because eDenny feated, made it so none of his stuff could move. I then killed the rest of what was in the objective zone and won. Straight forward and simple enough. It was the most fun game, not because I won, but my opponent was gracious and very chatty, I like that.

Game four vs Circle, again. Baldur, again. Slug-fest to the end. I was tired and wanted to go home so my heart wasn't in it. By now I'm so far out of the running for a prize that it's not funny. I killed his stuff, he killed mine. Ultimately he cast a hail marry at eDenny and scored just enough damage to send her back to Toruk (sp.) I lost. Boo.

Three of us went down, three of us returned. Our fantastic records a tad more tarnished than before but all the better for it I think.

I'd really like to see out play level here at our LGS increase, it's hard though, always playing the same people, same armies, same casters etc. I wish I had the time and money to travel more. It's hard now, what with a wife and kid. For now I'll have to settle for a small road trip every blue moon or so and pray that my local meta can help prepare me for those games. Here's hoping.

-Cheers-

The Beatitudes - Concluded

Be Timely:

Want to be a good gamer? Play lots of games. If it takes you 2 to 3 hours to play a 500 point game you seriously need to learn your army. A quick fluid game is not only more enjoyable but helps build confidence in your abilities. I'm pretty sure that no one enjoys having to sit around scratching their ballz waiting for a complete noob to figure out what they're going to do. Quick and easy, that's how we like'em.

Be Confidant:

Your army is good and very capable of winning. Say it over and over again. I cannot stress enough how helpful it is in the tourney scene to simply have confidence in yourself. Ever heard of the "Attractor Factor?" Basically it means that your mental thoughts will equal your future. It sounds so cheesy, but if you envision the win, you're that much closer to the win. If you're not confidant you may find yourself getting pushed around by the lgs rules jerks.

Be Humble (good winner and loser):

Bad losers suck to play against. I'm sure I've been a bad loser on some occasions but I really don't lose that much. That being said I want to focus on the ego maniac. Yeah, you're probably going to kick the tar out your opponent. At least be gracious and allow them to have a good time. If you want to keep gaming then you'll need to keep finding people to play against. You won't get very far by being smug. Buy'em a drink, compliment their painting. Make the game more than a notch on your bed post. The easiest way is to be humble in your conquest.

Be respectful:

This is a lot like be humble but applies to much much more than simply winning or losing. During a game you need to show respect to the other player by speaking clearly, making eye contact, listening to what they are saying and by paying attention. Don't be condescending if they ask for a rule clarification and don't bitch about how "cheezy" X is or how broken they are yadda yadda. You can trash talk a bit so long as you know your opponent is ok with that. I'm not, so don't ask me. Also, if you are a spectator you have no right or obligation to rules-lawyer. I'm guilty of this so often that it makes me sick, I feel bad about it but that doesn't make rules-lawyering OK. As a spectator don't ever ever ever ever ever pick up another player's figs without express permission. I don't care if it's in the graveyard or their case. Keep your grimy hand off the figs. And lastly, let them play. Don't be a distraction. Sit and watch and judge for yourself how much friendly banter is acceptable.

Be Knowledgeable:

If you're going to play a game learn the rules and know your faction inside and out. To gain success as a gamer you also need to learn the other factions. I've found through the few real ass-whoopn's I've had that they were always a result of me not knowing what the other units/caster/solo was capable of. My word of advice? Buy the books and study them, or at least the faction decks. You'll thank me when you're faced with a new army and still know everything about them, then proceed to tear them apart! :)

Happy gaming.

The "Be" Attitudes - Cont.

Be aggressive:

In my experience, my 17 years of wargaming experience, I have found that victory favors the aggressor. There are instances where a turtle seems the answer but ultimately they will lose to a more aggressive player as the aggressive player continue to develope new strategy. Look at it this way. If an opponent is forced to continuously respond to your assault then they have little ability to force a counter attack, will make a rash decision which and allow you to dominate them.

Be adaptable:

Even though your game plan is to simply run the Nightmare up and kill their caster (It always works for me) it is always wise to have 2 - 3 back up contingencies available. This way should your primary win condition fall short you will not require as much energy to regroup. Also, this let's you remain on the offensive (see "Be Aggressive.")

Be honest:

The best part about war gaming is the human interaction. There's nothing better than a few chums gathered together for a little brain bash'n. Even at a tournament the atmosphere and energy level should be fairly relaxed. Keep it this way by not trying to deceive your opponent. When they ask you for stat information don't lie. Don't erase wounds and especially don't try to move your figs farther than their alloted movement. Not only will dishonesty result in a quick sock-jacking, you'll soon find it difficult to get a game. I've seen this first hand as continual problem players fade from the local game group.

....more to come....

-Cheers-