Live to CRUSH

The Scene: Templecon

Scenario:

No scenario however we used scenario deployment (*$#%!&@*)!!!!!  The game itself was a bit of a twist, pitting CloudFang and Thundernuts against Dan and Andrew.  It was a team game and we played two to a side Legion and Cryx vs Menoth and Mercs.  Each side went back and forth taking turns as one big unit.  The game was fun but took extremely long.

Home Field Advantage:

No advantage at all.  The room was stuffy and hot.  The table itself was split down the middle creating a chasm of miniature destruction leading to the floor beneath.  And the table itself was held up by 3/4″ white pvc piping!!??  It was about as sturdy as a drunk guy on a teeter totter.  In fact a sizable disadvantage continues!  Dan and Andrew said it was commonplace to use scenario deployment even during a regular caster kill game.  I had never heard of this before but they seemed pretty much all about this, so seeing as it was a fun game we agreed.  But let me say that an 8″ deployment zone is total disadvantage if you are not playing for scenario.  My advice is to never agree to this.  Also I would love to hear some feedback from others who have played this way and why?
The main reason it was a disadvantage here was because there was an impassible cliff covering half the boards deployment zone. Other than that all was fair.

Beer on Hand:

More Guinness in the parking lot.

Music Playing:

A few farts, several hundred coughs, the sound of 400 gamers being annoying and one women bumbling into me saying excuse me as she tried to wheel her baby stroller through about one foot of space between two back to back gamers!?  Seriously, what was she thinking?

35×2 Point Lists:

CloudFang:

pThags, Angel, Carny, Shredder, mongers full, warspears min, 2x warchiefs, spawning vessel min,

Thundernuts:

Witch Coven, with Deathripper, Deathripper, Defiler, Leviathan, 10 Bane Thralls, Bane Lord Tartarus, Bloat Thrall, Warwitch Siren, Orin Midwinter

Pre-Game Thoughts and Deployment:

CloudFang:

All was well, it was great to see old friends and play some cool characters.  It was great to play a team game with one of my best boys Thundernuts.  The atmosphere seemed awesome at first! (it got hot stuffy and crowded quick) Our plan was ultimately to slog it out grinding our opponents into dust and have a great time doing it!  The exact words were something like ” I guess we will figure it out as we go!?! woot woot!”

Thundernuts:

Kill or be killed. That was about all there was too it. I’ve only played a handful of games against menoth and all of them were against severius, so facing the avatar was going to be a new one for me. I got really dicked by that 8″ deployment zone because most of my deployment was on top of an impassible cliff. Thus, I had to deploy most of my stuff in and behind Cloudfangs stuff making for a huge cluster F**k in the middle. In hindsight, Cloudfang and I should have switched sides because most of his warbeasts can fly over impassible terrain.

Round 1:

CloudFang:

All I know is we moved forward.  Warspears on the wide left mongers up the middle to berserk up some kayazy and risen.  Thags moving up in order with things.  Carny running up the terrain to cause trouble and Angel flying up too looking to set its targets on something.  Pot slowly lurking behind which it would do all game and not account for anything.  Mostly getting ready for turn 2 charges!

Thundernuts:

Advance forward. Banes and tartarus were in the middle. Leviathan on the right advanced. Bonejacks marched forward. Stealth on the Bloat thrall kept his nyss hunters and Eiryss scared on the right flank.

Round 2:

CloudFang:

Finally round 2…  Geesh, talk about two groups of two bashing thick skulls together and not coming up with any plans.  Their side had moved up slowly.  Vilmon and 2 paladins against no one with magic weapons.  That is tough.  Mercs kept putting wimpy 30mm bases in front of us.  First kayazy which I charged with mongers but he kept removing others (fion’s spell) and shutting down berserk and all the while getting risen.  Aside from mongers charging most everything else moved up.

Thundernuts:

We were bogged down in the middle pretty good with a wall of kayazy that wouldn’t die. Risen were everywhere. I’m not even going to get into what was happening in the middle. Lets just say, two denial lists working as a team sucks balls. I sent a deathripper to the far left to hopefully magic Vilmon to death.

Round 3:

CloudFang:

Thought the game was long to start, now things really started to slow down.  Alexia feats end of last turn and forces us to not be able to do much at all.  Still trying to hold back the paladins and open up some charge lanes so the vanquisher could quit lobbing fire balls at us but all those stupid troops kept getting in the way!! aarrrggggh!  At least I was able to defend the bottle neck in the hill terrain and keep the weapon masters away from us! (i love when real battle strategy plays a part in a great warmahordes game).  Pot might as well never have been taken.  Not only that but with a 20″ control the flying princess seemed about 1 million miles away.  Kept killing stuff with mongers.

Thundernuts:

Banes were helping the mongers. I tried a boosted stygian abyss on vilmon through the deathripper over there. Shot hit and boosted damage….complete fail. Bloat thrall lobs a shot on the nyss….scatter perfect…..no damage…other deathripper gets infernal machine and a focus…charges Eiryss….boosted roll to hit……fail to hit. Are you seeing a trend yet? This was the story of the game for me. I couldnt roll higher than whatever I needed no matter how much I boosted.

Round 4:

CloudFang:

I’ve lost feeling in my legs as my knees swell up with the idiot idea of standing on concrete forever without moving!  Is it me or is it getting stuffy in here?  I am really annoyed at this point.  Not so much with the game or our opponents but just the general atmosphere.  I need some fresh air!  Oh well, did i mention harby feated at then end of last turn?  Another turn of close to nothing.  Mongers that are left kill some stuff.  Angel can’t get a clear charge, carny is pinned down by a magic only paladin!  So we dance around a bit and don’t do very much.  But at least our opponents can’t do much either.  I guess?  I think a quick death right now would be favorable in some ways to this drawn out meandering.

Thundernuts:

More bad dice coupled with more denial…..I want to slit my wrists. The coven popped feat out of spite. Banes were steadily dying. Vilmon was engaging the deathripper. Eiryss and nyss were engaging the other. Bloat thrall aims at the back arc of teh deathripper surrounded by nyss and hits, killing 1 nyss out of 4 and no damage to eiryss. For the love of GOD!! Critical Stygian abyss on the mangler and shot it twice with the leviathan with 2 boosted damage rolls to do 8 damage. Searched my bag for a razor blade but couldnt find one. This was like a feverish dream that would not end.

Round 5:

CloudFang:

I charged and killed a crusader with Thags and brought back a carny, I must say things were not looking hopeless?  But more than our armies, I think our spirits were broken, so me and Thundernuts called it a game and conceded like gentlemen….  (who quit things).  Not much else to say or do.

Thundernuts:

*siiiigh* torment finally over…my suffering soul shall finally be released.

Final Thoughts:

CloudFang:

Team games can be a ton of fun!  However, then and there was probably not the right decisions.  Dan and Andrew are top notch fellas and me and Thunder had a great time playing them.  My only real thought is to scheme with Thunder about putting together a combo that is awesome and trying to play some more team matches.  Its really is cool for a change to play with someone and not against them.  Especially in a game where you are usually on your own.  As far as my army or our army was concerned I think we out played the opponents but I think the general match up and the unusual deployment situation had us at a nice disadvantage.  I think had we stuck with it we may have pulled a win?  I’m not sure.  They definitely had the model advantage by the end, but with the crusader gone and a fresh carny out I think we had options.  All in all a lot of fun.

Thundernuts:

Kidding aside, I did enjoy myself. There were some real downs in this game and some cunning up’s. Since this game, I have gotten rid of these awful dice and procured new ones. Two of the dice I used, Dan had given me a few years back and I think that had something to do with it. I’d like to do a rematch, but think things through a little more and not bring the generic (and sub par) list I brought. The leviathan really showed me how it is not all that effective. Same for the bloat thrall. I also noticed how some magic attacks would have been considerably helpful. Orin midwinter is useless. Infernal machine on a deathripper is a waste of an arcnode. I’ll never fall into that trap again. If your bringing melee arcnodes to the table, you have to select one role or the other. You cant have melee and arcnode. Defilers with the witch coven are meh at best. I think a slayer, withershadow combine, and cankerworm would do nicely replacing the defiler, leviathan, and Orin. Replace both deathrippers with nightwretches too. I dont know why I always go back to trying deathrippers.

~ by cloudfang on Tuesday, 21 February 2012.