Blood, Sweat, and Tiers was on Saturday. It was a two list, SR2012, 35 point tournament where each of your lists must be at least Tier 1. I brought brought a Tier 3 pButcher list and a Tier 4 NQ Zerkova list.
pButcher
+Kodiak
+Kodiak
+War Dog
5 MoW Demo Corps
5 MoW Shock Troopers
Manhunter
Manhunter
Yuri the Axe
Reinforcements: Widowmakers and Widowmaker Marksman
Zerkova
+Vanguard
+Spriggan
+Destroyer
10 Kayazy + UA
Greylords
Widowmakers
Gorman di Wulfe
Reinforcements: 6 Kayazy + UA
Sorry about the lack of photos - I was too excited and forgot to take any!
Game 1
I'm matched up against a Legion player running Saeryn with two Angelius, a bunch of Grotesques, and some other stuff. I played this guy last year running a similar list and beat him camping focus on Butcher so I went with that again. I forgot that Angelius have Armor Piercing and the pair ate Butcher.
Last year he only had one Angelius so my flub didn't cost me the game but this year it did - my bad.
Game 2
Round 2 sees me matched against a Circle player running eKaya with 3 heavies and some druids. I don't know a lot about eKaya aside from the fact that I'd never catch her heavies so I opted for the more agile Zerkova list. He was in the process of demolishing my army when he forgot about the control zones and didn't contest a zone the he could have very easily. I snuck out a win on control points!
Round 3
In this round I played a Khador player running a pButcher tier list very similar to mine. I took Zerkova because I had a lot of high DEF models to tie up his slower, lower model count army while still making plays at the objectives.
It turned out to be an excellent plan and I was able to get a solid win on control points. In particular, some smart plays with my reinforcements allowed me to get two points in one turn and really get his army turned around and out of position.
Round 4
I was feeling pretty good at this point with two straight wins until I ran into my next opponent. He was running eCaine with a million Gun Mages. Gun Mages seriously counter both of my lists - they ignore Kayazy Stealth and push slow MoW's around so they can never engage. I chose the Butcher list, hoping his high ARM plus Iron Flesh might save me from a Caine assassination attempt and allow me to counter.
I made a silly decision out of frustration late in the game to try to hit an Obliteration shot on some Gun Mages. I missed, Butcher had no Focus, and I was Caine-ed to death after a very slow, painful slog up the field. A very pleasant opponent but a very frustrating game.
Round 5
To finish the tournament I ran into an Ashlynn list running two units of Gun Mages.
Damn.
In hindsight I should have tried the Zerkova list after just losing with Butcher, but since there were less Gun Mages this time around (only 14 instead of 20+eCaine) I thought I'd have a better chance with the MoW's. I did manage to make a game out of it and ALMOST trapped Ashlynn, but she evaded my trap and nuked the Butcher.
Thoughts
Overall I was happy with how I played even though I finished with a losing record. There wasn't a lot to be done about the last two games, they were just bad match ups and both opponents were nice guys. I did manage to play well with Zerkova twice and win twice by scenario so there are lots of positives to take from the tournament.
Up next - Hardcore!
pButcher
+Kodiak
+Kodiak
+War Dog
5 MoW Demo Corps
5 MoW Shock Troopers
Manhunter
Manhunter
Yuri the Axe
Reinforcements: Widowmakers and Widowmaker Marksman
Zerkova
+Vanguard
+Spriggan
+Destroyer
10 Kayazy + UA
Greylords
Widowmakers
Gorman di Wulfe
Reinforcements: 6 Kayazy + UA
Sorry about the lack of photos - I was too excited and forgot to take any!
Game 1
I'm matched up against a Legion player running Saeryn with two Angelius, a bunch of Grotesques, and some other stuff. I played this guy last year running a similar list and beat him camping focus on Butcher so I went with that again. I forgot that Angelius have Armor Piercing and the pair ate Butcher.
Last year he only had one Angelius so my flub didn't cost me the game but this year it did - my bad.
Game 2
Round 2 sees me matched against a Circle player running eKaya with 3 heavies and some druids. I don't know a lot about eKaya aside from the fact that I'd never catch her heavies so I opted for the more agile Zerkova list. He was in the process of demolishing my army when he forgot about the control zones and didn't contest a zone the he could have very easily. I snuck out a win on control points!
Round 3
In this round I played a Khador player running a pButcher tier list very similar to mine. I took Zerkova because I had a lot of high DEF models to tie up his slower, lower model count army while still making plays at the objectives.
It turned out to be an excellent plan and I was able to get a solid win on control points. In particular, some smart plays with my reinforcements allowed me to get two points in one turn and really get his army turned around and out of position.
Round 4
I was feeling pretty good at this point with two straight wins until I ran into my next opponent. He was running eCaine with a million Gun Mages. Gun Mages seriously counter both of my lists - they ignore Kayazy Stealth and push slow MoW's around so they can never engage. I chose the Butcher list, hoping his high ARM plus Iron Flesh might save me from a Caine assassination attempt and allow me to counter.
I made a silly decision out of frustration late in the game to try to hit an Obliteration shot on some Gun Mages. I missed, Butcher had no Focus, and I was Caine-ed to death after a very slow, painful slog up the field. A very pleasant opponent but a very frustrating game.
Round 5
To finish the tournament I ran into an Ashlynn list running two units of Gun Mages.
Damn.
In hindsight I should have tried the Zerkova list after just losing with Butcher, but since there were less Gun Mages this time around (only 14 instead of 20+eCaine) I thought I'd have a better chance with the MoW's. I did manage to make a game out of it and ALMOST trapped Ashlynn, but she evaded my trap and nuked the Butcher.
Thoughts
Overall I was happy with how I played even though I finished with a losing record. There wasn't a lot to be done about the last two games, they were just bad match ups and both opponents were nice guys. I did manage to play well with Zerkova twice and win twice by scenario so there are lots of positives to take from the tournament.
Up next - Hardcore!