Hi! Hello! Terve!

Today I’m going to discuss Round 1 of the 2014 WTC in Poland. We played against Finland White, a fact which we discovered after a groggy breakfast and a wander into the hall. The hall was enormous, although some of the tables were close together (a side-effect of having 260 gamers in a room). We had actually played some of the guys from this team last year. I remember that Ciaran played against Teemu’s Retribution and I played against his brother Tepo’s Protectorate. Those guys were on the other team this year, but Stuart’s old foe Tatu, who had beaten him last year, was still standing across from us. We joked about them playing again (Stu did not want to be matched up against Butcher2 with his Trolls), which of course meant it was inevitable. The scenario is Incoming, which is fairly live.

Part 1 can be found here.

The Pairing Process

I actually didn’t do my best in this set of pairings. We looked over their lists which can be found here:

Janne Mikkola (Cpt.), Circle

Tatu Purhonen (Stu’s Nemesis), Khador

Sami Suikki, Cryx

Samu Jarvinen, Circle

Olli Reunanen, Cryx

The first thing that should jump out is that this is a double Circle, double Cryx team.

I should note at this stage that Skarre1 was a particular issue for our team, and that’s a bad issue to have as she was everywhere. This was mostly due to the late addition of Pete to Team Ceol, after Anthony dropped out. Neither Ciaran, Stu (Calandra vs. Skarre1 is bad times), nor Pete wanted to play against Skarre1, especially the all Bane Knights version.

So immediately we had to be wary of that. I had a look at the form I had my players fill out, which would give me a rough guide on how to approach this situation. I’d also gone through a few simulations of how the pairing process worked if we had to put up a player first (i.e. the worse one). I had not really practised what happens if they have to put someone up first, and that would bite me a few times over the weekend.

My aggregate of everyone’s thoughts on matchups yielded the following table for Finland White.

Finland White Faction Ciaran Pete Pat Eoin Stu Janne M (Cpt.) Circle Okay Good Good List Chicken Good Tatu P Khador List Chicken Bad Good List Chicken Okay Sami S Cryx Bad Bad Good Good Bad Samu J Circle Good Good Good List Chicken Okay Olli R Cryx Okay Okay Good Good Bad

My general strategy was that if someone, especially either of the Arm skews, only has one truly bad matchup they would go up first, often drawing out the Cryx player who would end up choosing between Pat and I. I suspected many would choose me, which is fine as I’m my most experienced player vs. Cryx.

We had an extra wrench thrown in the works here as Tatu’s Doom Reaver spam was effectively a third Cryx player to avoid. I often wanted to drop either Trolls or Convergence into the least hard hitting Cryx player on teams with a double Cryx. The idea being to reverse a matchup they would take for granted.

So we sat down, we all gathered together. Some people went to pee. Then we gathered together, and started the matchup clock. We won the roll, and elected to put forward second, and therefore choose more matchups, but cede the table choice. I underestimated how powerful table choice would be as the tournament went on. It meant that as a Protectorate player I got trapped on a table with a GIANT forest in a zone, twice. The main problem was that as the tournament went on terrain seemed to migrate centrally and became way more unbalanced than it was in early rounds. I predicted this to a certain extent, which is why High Reclaimer had Saxon instead of Gastonne.

There were two mistakes made almost immediately by me. First, I didn’t keep Skarre1 foremost in my mind while doing matchups, which would net us a really bad matchup on paper. I got thrown off by Butcher2 Doom Reaver-spam, which is not a list we see much in Ireland. I decided to try and avoid serious list chicken with that Khador list, and ended up having Pat matched off before we saw either Cryx player. I completely lost the matchup process as a result. Here’s how it went:

They put up: Tatu P with Khador.

We have a brief discussion and I put forward Stuart and Patrick because they have a good or okay matchup listed. I’m not 100% on how solid Stu’s matchup is without much practice, he may be underrating the matchup but we err towards trusting him.

We put up: Stu with Trolls & Pat with Cygnar.

They unsurprisingly chose to play Khador vs. Trolls. And pick a table, I can’t remember the terrain having a big effect here.

This leaves us with Patrick. We immediately realise our mistake, but it’s too late now.

They put up: Janne with Circle & Samu with Circle.

Pat is happy to play against either, but I don’t want to see Morvahna and Ciaran isn’t sure of his matchup there so we select to have Pat play Janne, then Janne chooses table, leaving Samu with his Baldur2 and Krueger1.

We put up: Eoin (that’s me!) with Protectorate & Pete with Legion.

There was a small chance that he’d choose to play Baldur2 into Legion, but as expected he chooses to play against me. Leaving me in list chicken.

We have Pete left, to choose between two Cryx players. And Ciaran would have to play against the other Cryx player. HRRRK!

I make the same face when I see a list I never want to play against. It’s a useful lithmus test.

We discuss it for a bit, and I think Vayl has a better chance of making it through the matchup. So Pete plays Skarre, er I mean Cryx. And Ciaran ends up against Olli’s Denny2, which could be a tight game in Incoming.

Matchups: Stuart vs. Tatu, Grissel2 vs. Butcher2 (Okay, according to the player’s analysis)

Pat vs. Janne, Siege vs. Morvahna2 (Good)

Eoin vs. Samu, High Reclaimer vs. Baldur2 (Good, I win list chicken)

Pete vs. Sami, Vayl2 vs. Skarre (Bad, like real bad)

Ciaran vs. Olli, Lucant vs. Deneghra2 (Not great, but playable)

This is not an ideal situation as my instinct says that only Pat and I have an advantage in terms of lists, and Pete’s matchup is a total blow-out, in his opinion. Luckily matchups are only part of the equation, we hit the tables to decide who will advance undefeated into round 2.

The GAME!

We were playing Incoming. And the matchup was High Reclaimer vs. Baldur2. I was a bit worried about the fertilizer, but my Bastions and Errants could make themselves immune to that kind of rfp. I was also worried about him having a good feat turn because my retaliation would be middling without Blessed ignoring roots of the earth, and I’d find it hard to get harm in the right place.

I won the roll to go first, and he chose a side that left me with a trench between me and the zone closest to his side. There was also a hill running along the far left side of that zone, and a wall just past my zone, just closer and in line with the objective. So an excellent choice of table sides. That wall allowed him to get a lot of stuff up just safely threatening my zone, and would be an excellent position to negate Baldur2’s awful Def of 13.

I deployed in my standard formation, with High Reclaimer and the Devout and merc squad in the centre, packed up tight, with Bastions close by on each side. Then Idrians closest to my friendly zone, while the Errants faced the far zone in their traditional sacrificial role. Eiryss deployed on the left side, able to reach his zone in no time, and Saxon in the trench, also planning to eventually be a contesting model. Woldwatchers can struggle to kill him, at very least it takes effort.

He deployed with Baldur and Megalith centrally, slightly closer to my zone, two Woldwatchers near his zone, one near mine, and a Wold Guardian to each side. The Stones AD’ed centrally and the Druids took up positions behind the brick. I’d never played against the list, but I’d read about it a lot, and I wasn’t really shocked by the deployment. We shook hands, I Preyed Baldur and the game kicked off.

Round 1

Top of: I run everything forward, specifically Orin is run as far forward as possible. The plan being to start shoving the Druids further back. I also want to have Idrians start shooting at at least the not stealth stones. The Errants run towards the left zone opposite them, Eiryss runs up wide on the left hand side, ready to walk into the zone next turn. Saxon, Aiyana and Gorman stay central while the Bastions run forward their mighty 8″. High Reclaimer comes up the middle, draws from a Wrack which doesn’t explode and the Devout walks forward to be able to cover Orin/HR next turn if any W0ldwatchers walk into the clouds. The burning ash clouds cover all of the Idrians and most of the Errants.

Bottom of: His Woldwatchers walk forward and use Stone Form, they don’t have any shooting targets, there are now one in each zone and one down the middle. So that’s one more round of RFP resilience. His Gallows Groves both port forward to be near one of the Woldwatchers on the far end of either side. Megalith tramples forward and casts roots of the earth on the central Woldwatcher. My hope is to reduce <=Megalith’s casting ability with Orin, making Baldur camp zero, or feat as early as possible if he wants to keep all the Woldwatchers at full Arm. Once the feat is gone the Bastions are going to be very effective, but I want to keep them all live before I start hitting ‘beasts with them.

His Guardians both run forward. One towards each zone, his army is very symmetrical. Baldur walks forward, but not very far, he’s quite far back, well behind his army. He throws up two roots of the earth and camps two. The druids walk forward, but are now behind the Wolds and throw up Counter Magic, put up clouds in front of Baldur2, and do Elemental Protection. He passes turn.

Round 2

Top of: Most armies start to get serious work done on turn 2, but High Reclaimer games usually take longer to wind up, especially as he has no light infantry to keep my Errants and Idrians in work. I’ve decided at this stage that we are each going to start scoring our own zones, his models are harder to remove but he doesn’t have a lot of flexibility or number of attacks. I’m pretty sure I’ll win if I can keep one Woldwatcher occupied and kill one Watcher under his feat. This means I need Kiss of Lyliss and a lot of Bastion charges. So my Idrians and Errants need to move up a lot in order to allow the Bastions to get up far. I also need to push Orin into his face to keep Counter Magic back.

My Idrians start going around right, keeping relevant to Baldur, who they hit on 7s, though don’t really threaten under the feat. They take pot shots at Stones but the Stones are actually very safe, near Shield Guards, and too far into his army. Gorman blinds the rightmost Watcher so he can’t rfp any Idrians.

I run Bastions to try and keep Orin safe, making sure he still has a lane. Aiyana and Holt stay central and barely advance, going Stealth so the middle Watcher can’t kill them. Eiryss walks into the far left corner and takes a shot at a Druid, which is Shield Guarded. Two Errants charge the Watcher and one charges a Gallows Grove. The Grove dies and I quick work into a Druid and spike the dice. The dead Grove is going to help a lot at limiting roots of the earth after the feat. The Bastions on that side run one guy into the zone, but get ready to charge into the zone. The Devout gets up near both Orin and Gorman will be. High Reclaimer puts up a lot of burning ash, so the right zone is covered, as is the centre field. He can walk into the zone, just about, but I’m very wary of the still live Stones. Orin gets up very far, actually quite close to Gorman, but so close to the blinded Watcher that Counter Magic couldn’t clip him.The Idrians are half out and the left zone is left exposed. I probably over committed but I couldn’t afford him scoring first, and feating.

Bottom of: The blinded Woldwatcher doesn’t do anything, just Stone Forms. His Stones port one Guardian into my zone, near a straggling Idrian whom he kills and gets next to Gorman, and thus very close to Orin. I’m now very worried. He hits and kills Gorman, a big loss in controlling his models, but can’t get close enough to Orin, he hits and one shots a Bastion with his remaining attack. Megalith can’t ignore Orin now, so he backs way up towards the left zone, not spending any fury. His central Watcher walks down the middle a bit and Stone Forms. The Watcher in the zone kills the Errants engaging him, or rather hits and kills one, and I Self Sacrifice to the unengaged guy who had killed the Grove. He Stone Forms and spends no more fury. A theme of the turn.

The second Guardian also gets ported into the zone, killing a single Errant and a Bastion. I don’t Sanguine Bond because those guys don’t rfp YEAH! The Druids walk up set up a cloud wall just behind the objective, with some stragglers behind the wall on the right, they don’t get to cloud because of Orin and Counter Magic is up but a decent bit back. I’m not sure if it reaches far into the zone. Baldur walks forward into his cloud bunker and feats, spending enough fury so that he can take back everything after Serenity, only the Wold Guardian in the right zone is full.

Round 3

Top of: Okay! Here goes! I allocate one to the Devout and keep the rest. Aiyana shuffles back and to the side, away from the central Watcher and Harms the Guardian. Counter Magic is a good 2-3″ out. The Idrians put an 11-man CRA into the Guardian, doing dice+1 damage. The Bastions all charge him, with 4 dice -9 attacks, and leave him with very little damage. Finally the Devout walks forward and hits with his pole axe, boosting damage and finishes him off. I can’t possibly clear the Watcher, so I won’t be scoring yet.

The Errants swamp the Wold Guardian and Woldwatcher on the right, which is to say the few remaining guys try to hem him in. The Bastions charge one guy into the central Watcher and the rest charge and put some small damage on the Guardian, over the Errants’ heads. High Reclaimer throws up burning ashes over the right zone and centre field again. Staying safe, about an inch or two from the zone with a cloud stopping the Watcher getting cheeky. Orin activates again, slightly further forward. Eiryss takes a pot shot at a Druid, and misses. I pass the turn pretty happy.

Bottom of: Central Woldwatcher doesn’t get his fury removed, and everything else goes empty. The left zone is an ineffectual slap fest, the Errants and all die. The Bastions take a hit that doesn’t kill anyone. >_< The Watcher in the right zone hits the Bastions but I spread the damage and keep them all alive. The Grove on that side gets behind the Watcher. Megalith goes to put roots of the earth on the left zone Guardian but finds himself in Orin’s bubble and can’t, he throws up his animus in hopes of interfering with Bastions, but everything is close together and he remembers I have Saxon a moment later. Baldur throws up roots on the Watcher in my right, and on Megalith, then camps two. The Druids shuffle the cloud bank slightly, keeping Counter Magic up but it’s small and far back now. The Stones all reposition, I still haven’t killed any!

Round 4

Top of: I’ve gotten past the feat, he’s got a heavy down, I’ve lost mostly just Errants, the Counter Magic is out of place, there isn’t enough roots to go around and I still have Aiyana. I’m feeling like the game is now very much so in my favour. I allocate 3 to the Devout. I activate Aiyana and harm the roots Watcher. I’ll take my chances with the Guardian against the other 4 Bastions, it’s a bit beat up and they are only 8 off. I can probably get three charges in. I go for it, the Bastion charging away from the central Watcher, taking the free strike and spreading the damage. I kill the Guardian on the last attack with good dice and I’m feeling really strong now. Eiryss takes a pot shot at a Druid and kills it this time. The Idrians can’t CRA the engaged Woldwatcher in my right zone, so they go Druid hunting and kill two more. This causes a command check, which the Druids fail. Things are really going my way! The Bastions all go to wail on the Woldwatcher, they ignore the roots and with harm they are dice -7. I get three charges and one runs to reposition. I don’t really do much damage at all. I think its got about half health left. So much that the Devout and High Reclaimer probably can’t finish it off. I hit it twice with boosted Devout pole axe attacks and High Reclaimer stays back in a personal cloud bunker thanks to the Wracks. Orin goes, keeping aggressive.

Bottom of: Samu is in a tight spot now, but if he can clear his zone he starts scoring first. Megalith kills a Bastion, staying as far right in the left zone as possible. Ready to contest next turn. Baldur gets teleported into the left zone and kills all but one of the Bastions, and all of the ones who are actually in the zone. The Watcher in that zone walks over towards Eiryss but is just out of range to take a shot. That’s largely doomed his scoring chances. The Woldwatcher in my right zone hits the Bastions, killing two through Sanguine Bond. The Druids rally, and a second set of Stones port into the zone near Baldur. Baldur is now down a good bit of damage from Wurm tokens.

Round 5

Top of: Time for the old round five first CP, Menoth style. This is definitely going to be the feat turn, I’m hoping to kill both the Watcher in my zone and Megalith. Aiyana harms Megalith and Holt shoots the last Gallows Grove. The Idrians clear off all but one Druid and put a three man CRA into Baldur, which rolls hot and he transfers it, dealing big damage to the central Woldwatcher. They then charge a Stone and break up the Stealthed set. The Devout hits and damages the Woldwatcher. High Reclaimer charges the Woldwatcher, as far away from it as possible. Dealing a bit more, then I feat bringing both Bastions nearly back to full. I camp 7, I’d gotten a soul from somewhere. I’m sure that I’m miles from a porting in Baldur. The right Bastions charge 3 into the Watcher and one in to Megalith. The Watcher finally dies, ensuring my CP. I still have 20 minutes left. Megalith takes a big hit, then gets charged by four more Bastions killing him while the last charges the central Watcher. Eiryss shuffles a bit away from the Watcher, and shoots Baldur, dealing a point to him. Saxon runs in to also contest the left zone.

Bottom of: My opponent is feeling the crunch now, and ports Baldur2 into my zone, running a Druid to contest. Baldur tries to do his 5″ AoE explosion. But can’t. So he swings and kills all the Bastions he’s engaging. He passes turn.

Round 6

Top of: I have the Idrians all aiming in Baldur’s back arc, hitting on 5s and doing dice -4 damage, with Baldur having about 10 hit points. He dies before I do any charges.

Team Progress: I look up to see that only Pat is still playing. Pete and Stu were beside me and Pete looked really strong in terms of Bane Knights dead vs. heavies alive, but he seriously fears that matchup, and as far as I knew last I’d seen Skarre hadn’t feated yet. Stu’s game looked like a grind fest where he was going to get charged by a lot of Doom Reavers. In short order I find out that Ciaran lost on scenario relatively fast, Stu got insanely lucky and his opponent had a whole turn of rolling poop and then diced Butcher really hard for the win, totally negating an otherwise tight game! I’ll take that. So with my win we’re through the first round, already much better than last year’s progress.

Pat’s game is still going, and it’s close but he looks good for the scenario win. He forgets Hunter’s Mark on a Blackclad Wayfarer, which engages Siege, lands the spell and allows Morvahna2’s Warpwolf Stalker to charge and kill Siege. Unfortunate end to the game, but we all had great games against lovely opponents and feel psyched to go play and hopefully underdog a hyped team!

We soon discover we’ll be playing the Aussie team with guys from Ozmachine, whom we have been slagging on an off on our own terrible podcast (Steady on – Ed.). Ciaran ‘F***ing’ Bolger might get his chance to fight Trent Denison after all!

Stay Classy,

-VagrantPoet/Eoin