OWC Invitational Battle Report

The Ohio Warmahordes Championship Invitational was held this weekend at Buckeye Battles. It was a 16 man event, with all of the participants being winners of 16 qualifying events held throughout the year. This was a 3 list, divide and conquer 1, event.

My three lists were:

Goreshade 2 tier 3

Shade 2 +5
Skarlock 2
Kraken 19
Tartarus 4
Pistol Wraith 3
Scrap Thralls x9 3
Max Bane Thralls 8
UA 3
Max Bane Thralls 8
UA Free
Withershadow Combine 5

Denni 2 Mind, Body, and Soul Tier 4

EDenni +6
Skarlock 2
Deathjack 12
Nightmare 10
Nightwretch 4
Siren x2 4
Iron Lich Overseer 3
Min Mechanithralls 3
Skarlock Commander 1
Necrosurgeon and Stitch 2
Min Cephalyx Mind Slaver and Drudges 3 (reduced cost)
Min Cephalyx Mind Slaver and Drudges 3 (reduced cost)
Min Cephalyx Mind Slaver and Drudges 3 (reduced cost)
Cephalyx Overlords 3 (reduced cost)
Cephalyx Overlords 3 (reduced cost)

Goreshade 3 The shiny new toy

Shade 3 +5
Ripjaw 5
Skarlock 2
Darragh 4
Madelyn Corbeau 2
Pistol Wraith x2 6
Machine Wraith x2 2
Satyxis Raider Captain 2
Siren 2
Gorman 2
Max Blackbane's Ghost Raiders 9
Max Satyxis Raiders 8
UA 2
Max Soulhunters 9

Round 1 Destruction

I am matched up against a Protectorate player who is bringing Harbinger, Severius 2, and Feora 2. I choose to play Shade 2 because he is my Harbinger drop, and he goes with Sevy2. He has a Reckoner, Sanctifier, Vanquisher, light arc node, Max TFG, Max Errants, two Vassals, the Choir, and maybe something else. This game was a massive grind. Turn one was filled with runs and much jockeying for position. We met in the middle and the melee began. He killed a bunch of Banes, I feated them back, then killed some of his stuff, and then he killled a bunch of Bane's once again. The two units, on both sides of the table, were caught in a massive melee for the entire game. Sev spent most of the game camping focus so he didn't get blown off the table by the Kraken, which had Phantom Hunter on him the entire game. The Kraken managed to kill both the Reckoner and the Sanctifier in melee, after I had them both in Dark Shroud bubbles and did some cycling of Curse of Shadows. The Vanquisher attempted to charge the Kraken, on my opponents last turn, but was short of melee. If he gets there, he probably finishes it off as the Kraken only had 18 boxes left at that point. That turn my opponent finally spent some of his focus to clear some of my models, and left Sev on 1. I seize the opportunity to finally put some shots into him with the BIG GUY. I hit with two of my rapid fire shots, and then the BIG GUN sent Sev to meet Menoth. Assassination win for me.

Round 2 Outflank

I am matched with Menoth again. He has Kreoss1, Harbinger, and Feora2. At least I think I remember that correctly. I choose Denni2, wanting to save Shade2 for later, and he plays Kreoss1. He has a Reckoner, Vanquisher, Choir, 2 Vassals, Eyriss, Aiyana and Holt, Gastone, Rhupert, Errants, Zealots with UA, the Book, Wracks, and the Hirophant. Maybe something else as well. I win the roll and choose to go second. He moves his army up and makes everything immune to spells. He also purifies my upkeeps that started on the table. I do a cautious advance, not really killing anything, but I am getting ready to set up my feat turn. He feats early and kills almost all of my drudges and Mechanithralls. I feat the next turn, catching almost everything. I run the Nightmare, straight in the direction of Kreoss. My Overlords spray the crap out of a ton of his stuff. I kill all of the zealots, eyriss, holt, a vassal, some errants, and the Deathjack charged and killed the Reckoner. I dominate the right zone for one point. I feel pretty good about this game now. Not being able to move most of his army, he cannot really retaliate and stuggles to get back into the game. I move up to dominate the zone on my turn and fail to kill Kreoss with Nightmare. I have all of his models, on my right side, destroyed, and that means on his turn he cannot contest the zone. I dominate on my turn and then on his turn again. Scenario win 5 - 0

Round 3 Fire Support

I draw Legion. He has Saeryn, Lylyth2, and Vayl1. He plays Liyyth2 and I drop Denni2 again. He brings two Angels, one Ravagore, a Naga, two Shepards, a Succubus, Full Raptors, two Deathstalkers and Annyssa Ryvaal. Would have loved to play Shade3 here, just so I would have all of my lists left for the finals, if I were to make it, but cannot because I would get blown off the table on his feat turn. I start with Pursuit on the Ravagore, Marked for Death on one Angel, and Curse of Shadows on the other. I win the roll and choose side, because there is an obstruction that will block line of sight to Denni2. I move Denni2 on his turn one with the pursuit move. This allows me to feat turn one and lock all but two Raptors and Annyssa in place. I make a huge mistake with my placement of my heavies, and I cannot reach Lylyth the following turn. The plan was to run both of them up and get two charges on her. That plan had to change, and fast. He feats turn two and kills massive amounts of my infantry and puts some good damage on Nightmare. I retaliate by killing one Angel, some Raptors, and a Deathstalker. The other Deathstalker fled when engaged by the Overseer. He kills more infantry on his turn and takes out both of the arms on Nightmare. At this point, Deathjack has a charge lane on Lylyth as long as I can kill the Naga first. It takes almost everything I have left to get rid of the Naga, which means I do not have anything that can cast Ghost Walk on the Deathjack, in order to get to Lylyth who is hiding in a lake. I charge and kill the Ravagore instead. His next turn he gives me an opening. He kills a bunch of models with Lylyth and swift hunters to within 15" of Denni2. At this point, I do not have an arc node, so Denni is going to have to get this done by herself. I move a stitch thrall to within approximately 3" of Lylyth and within 10" of Denni2. I charge the stitch with Denni and cast Hellmouth on it, pulling Lylyth into melee range of Denni. I boost the damage roll from the Hellmouth on Lylyth and it puts her away. She only had 6 boxes left after I had been putting small amounts of damage on her over the course of the game. I also killed the last Angel before doing all of that, so she had nothing to transfer to. Assassination win for me.

Final Table Balance of Power

It is down to me and Chuck Elswick. We are both list locked. He has Severius2 and I have Goreshade3. Doing my best to remember his list, but it was something like this: Judicator, heavy node, light node, max Idrian Skirmishers, Choir, Vassals, Hierophant, wracks, and something else. He gets turn one and moves everything up. I run my units and my incorp solos, to try to get into position to feat next turn. I run my node behind some cover and out of range of everything. His Idrians kill a lot of my Satyxis Raiders and two Soulhunters. Severius kills the last 4 Raiders with his gun, and casts Fear of God on my Ghost Raiders. He camps one focus. The Judicator kills Gorman with a wandering AOE. On my turn 2, I see an opening. I move Madelyn over toward my right side so Darragh can move into base with her. This will give me a 10" command range for my Deathride, which ends up being huge. Darragh moves over and Deathrides everything. I move a Machine Wraith 1" directly toward Sevvy. I light cav out of the way. The Machine Wraith runs his 14" directly at Sevvy and almost bases him. My Ghost Raiders advance and kill a couple of Idrians, but do not make a big impact on anything. One Pistol Wraith manages to Death Chill the Judicator. My Soulhunters charge and one of them kills my Madelyn, in order to clear a charge lane for Shade3, another one dies to a defensive strike, and the last one runs. My Skarlock casts Infernal Machine on the Ripjaw. The Ripjaw gets loose 18" up the table and straight at Sevvy. Shade activates and charges one of my own Ghost Raiders, he feats and makes a bunch of Idrians stationary, and the Sevvy as well. Shade sends a Siphon Bolt at Sevvy and uses the one focus Sevvy had to boost the damage. I roll 5, 5, 2. I cast another Siphon Bolt and Sevvy joins the kingdom of Menoth and meets his maker. An assassination victory for me!! Cryx win the OWC Invitational!! Glory to the Dragonfather!!

An awesome event with some really awesome prizes. Thanks to John and everyone else that was involved with the organization of this amazing event. You guys are the shit!!!

Congrats on being the Ohio Warmachine Champion! Is that a title that you'll have to defend next year or is it yours forever?