Origins OWC qualifier

This will be sort of quick as my brain is fried. So we had 18 folks show up for the qualifier, and boy let me tell you, these guys were NOT messing around. I saw at least 3 Cryx, 3 Cygnar, 3 Cyriss, 1 Circle, 1 Merc, 1 Ret, 1 Skrone, and some other stuff. My lists were:

Shade 3
Ripjaw
Skarlock
Wraith Engine (just for you Nick)
Darragh
Madelyn
Max Blackbane's
Max Soulhunters
Max Satyxis Raiders with UA
Withershadow (a late addition as of midnight the night before)

EDenni (Mind, Body, and Soul tier 4)
DJ
Nightmare
Nightwretch
Skarlock
Siren x2
Iron Lich Overseer
Min Mechanthralls
Skarlock Commander
Necrosurgeon and Stitch
Min Cephalyx Drudges x3
Cephalyx Overlords x2

Round 1
I draw a Cygnar player. I pick up his army list sheet, read one name (PCaine), and hand it back to him. I choose to play EDenni, because she has a slight chance of winning I guess. This game will be on youtube, if you are interested in watching me get my ass kicked for two rounds before capitalizing on a major mistake by my opponent. I put Pursuit on EEyriss, which keeps her ass from moving the whole game, Marked for Death on the Outriders, and Curse of Shadows on the Centurion. I run and try my best to pressure my opponent. He feats and wears my army out. Almost everything is dead on my side when he leaves me a charge lane for the Deathjack on Caine. I load up DJ, cast Ghost Walk on him so he can navigate the difficult terrain, and piss my pants with joy. Dj ends this one, just in time. My opponent was a pretty casual player, and one hell of a nice dude. I am a little bit lucky to get out of this one.

Round 2
I draw Cyriss. He is running Lucant and Iron Mother. Knowing that the Shade list will struggle against Lucant's armor skew, as well as Mother's infantry clearing efficiency, I play EDenni. He chooses Iron Mother. Pursuit goes on Axiom, Curse of Shadows on an Assimilator. I keep everything relatively safe from Axiom shooting, as well as Assimilator shots, and give myself a pretty decent feat turn. He manages to kill a bunch of drudges, and drag in the Deathjack with the Axiom. He only cripples one arm on DJ however, so we are in business. The following turn, I destroy an objective and wreck Axiom with DJ, Nightmare, two Drudges, and one Mechanithrall. I control the zone and pass the turn while Denni is sitting Incorporeal and behind cover. He fails to get anything into the zone on his turn, but does wreck DJ and hurt Nightmare. I score again, and then dominate on the ensuing turn. Scenario win 5 - 0.

Round 3
I draw Cryx running PDENNI AND A-HOLE LICH!! Well shoot!! Just for the sake of not getting locked into a list in round 4, I take Shade 3. I give Shade a look and tell him, its showtime homey!! His list is full of mercs. He has Nyss, Boomhowlers, Rorsch and Brine, Master Gunner Dougal, Lord Rockbottom, and Gorman. He also has two Nodes, two Sirens, and the Withershadow. I go first and run my ass up the table. He kills two Soulhunters, Crippling Grasps my Satyxis. I pull that damn spell off faster than you can say oops. I run the ghost Raiders and move up to feat with Shade. I get all but one of the Boomies, both Sirens, one node, and Brine. The Satyxis charge a node and make short work of it, while also giving two damage to Denni, due to backlash. The Wraith Engine runs to engage all of the Nyss and force a command check, which they pass. The Soulhunters kill a grand total of ONE boomhowler, as 4+ tough is good, and then light cav to block some lanes to Shade. I debated casting Mockery this turn, in order to get both Soulhunters back, but opted for the camp. It was probably the wrong choice. I keep the node waaaaaaaaaay back, as well as the Skarlock, Darragh, and Madelyn. He feats, casts Ghost Walk on the Nyss, and the killing begins. I lose all of the Soulhunters, all of the Ghost Raiders, and all but four of the Satyxis who are once again Crip Grasped. Shade is in the feat and so are my Raiders. The node, and Skarlock are out of the feat, so I allocate one to the node and keep four. I have one shot here. Denni came out of the killbox, so she is now up the table a bit. The skarlock casts Infernal Machine on the Node, and the Node gets loose. He runs 18" straight at Denni. He ends about 3.5" from her. The Withershadow cast puppet strings on Shade. Since my control area is reduced to 10", Shade has to pretty much stay where he is, which exposes him to EVERYTHING if this does not work. Shade activates, takes a look at the battlefield, and says, "This place is FUCKED"! He casts Siphon Bolt at Denni, for free thanks to Spell Vortex, and boosts to hit. I need 11, thanks to the feat, and roll 6, 1, 2. Puppet Strings the 1 and 2 and roll 4, 3 instead. I use the one focus Denni had to boost damage and plug her for all but 4 boxes. Sooo, I cast it again. I boost to hit and the blow is true. I roll a 5 and 4 for damage, putting her away!!! This was a rough game. My opponent was from the Boston, Mass meta. Great player and great dude. Dice were in my favor right there. I want to thank Brian for coming over late last night and helping me finalize this list. We added the Combine right at the end, and I do not win this game without them.

Round 4
Win and I am in. Another Cygnar player, but he is rocking PHaley and Epic Stryker. I KNOW he will play Haley, so I take EDenni. He damn near wrecks Nightmare on turn one with Hunters, who are pretty damn good by then way. I am under Temporal Barrier for nearly the entire game, and he tried a risky assassination attempt on EDenni, but failed. I killed him the next turn, with Venom and some other shenanigans. I will spare the finer details since this game will be on youtube.

A very tough tourney. Everyone took the stuff I would expect to see. I needed some luck today, and got it when it mattered. Thank you to everyone who put this event together, and special thanks to the press gangers who were cool enough to judge.

I also want to thank the folks who come into "the cave" every week, in the interest of play testing.

Hey man! Nice write up. I enjoyed the game yesterday. One thing is bugging me. I feel that you thought the hell mouth killed Haley and I've been worried I forgot to Mark damage on some incidental thing? I had the hammer dwarf damage on her but that's it. You were a gracious opponent anyway dude. You deserved the win. I hope I don't look like a moron on video. I'll see you around probably next year at origins.

What's up MERLIN? Nah man, I thought I had done more damage with the hell mouth roll. I just got overly excited. We Italians are some passionate people, it's in the blood, sorry I can't help it. I enjoyed our game very much. Normally games against phaley are the anti-fun, and this one wasn't, so that was great. When I was replaying the end of the game in my head, I realized how bad your dice crapped out in the end. Sorry about that dude. Anyway, it was a pleasure to play against you, and I look forward to another opportunity to do so.

Slowerlitespeed wrote:...casts Siphon Bolt at Denni, for free thanks to Spell Vortex...

Atta boy!

Servo wrote:

Slowerlitespeed wrote:...casts Siphon Bolt at Denni, for free thanks to Spell Vortex...

Atta boy!

LOL

I like this 3Shade list a lot.

milothewise wrote:I like this 3Shade list a lot.

I like this , but it struggles against armor, and magic shooting.

If someone where to tell me I was going to have to play against pcaine, pdenni, and iron mother with a phaley-sized cherry on top, I wouldn't have bothered showing up with this list. I admit I was pretty lucky last weekend.

I would be interested to hear your opinions on how the list changes in a three-list format.

I'd like to start toying with a list that utilizes the Kraken. Mike suggested it the other day, and it certainly seems solid on paper. The best Infernal Machine target, with solid guns to take advantage of a stationary caster. It helps the ARM cracking problem and reduces your vulnerability to an army of POW 10 magic pistols.

I'm not sure what I'd change specifically for a 3-list event. Would have to think hard about where the WSC would go.

It's funny you should mention the kraken. I had a list built that included one, and Brian and I played a late game on Friday night, then we changed the list to fit the wsc. I love the kraken with him, but points get soooo tight once he is in the list.

That's fair. I agree that it's the WSC or the Kraken. Have you gotten more than one game in?