Competitive game night!

So Mike and I drove for an hour to play each other at Eastside on Saturday night (it was fine, we were just waiting for Chad and Monty to play their game). I was testing a list that I can actually field (post-borrowing) alongside my Gorten list, and Mike was testing the actual viability of the McThrall spam pGaspy list:

Durgen
-Driller x2
-Basher
Press Gangers
Sea Dogs + Walls
Hawk
Rockbottom
Gun Mages + UA
Tactical Arcanist Corps
Dougal MacNaile
eEiryss

VERSUS

pGaspy
-Nightwretch x2
-Cankerworm
-Kraken
-Skarlock
McThralls x3 (Advanced Deployed b/c of Tier 1)
Necrosurgeon x2
Machine Wraith x2

My plan is to kill the thralls and eventually force him to get the Kraken up to hold the zone, where hopefully I can get 2 Redline'd Drillers onto him. Or just find a chance to shoot Gaspy.

I think I went first; we both run up first turn - I Carpet Bomb with Artillerist hoping for crazy deviations but get nothing.

Turn two I start Carpet Bombing in earnest, the Gun Mages go to town (and snipe out one of the Machine Wraiths), the Press Gangers with Primed jam on the left and the Sea Dogs mini-feat to get in his grill on the right and start killing Thralls. He puts Parasite on the Sea Dogs and Feats to wipe something like 75% of my dudes.

Turn three I keep up the game plan, killing one surgeon, two McThrall units, and slamming the Cankerworm into the Kraken but come short on killing it (should have given him one more focus). I was hoping to take out the Worm and jam the Kraken out of the zone. I also don't get to move my drillers up very far - and destroy my OWN objective in order to get the slam lane I need on the Cankerworm.

Mike responds by taking my Basher, getting into my left Driller's lane, and moving the Kraken so I can't get both Drillers to him no matter what I do. Then he inexplicably spends all of Gaspy's focus and doesn't end his turn behind cover.

I move up to kill Gaspy with Durgen on his own with one direct shot and a 4d6 POW7 blast damage shot. Then Mike asks me to read Arcing Fire again, and we realize that Gaspy is within 1" of the Kraken, and therefore invisible to Durgen. I could have done it by moving laterally rather than into the zone, but as it was I gave it to Mike.

Good game, always a grind against this list. I don't think Mike should play it anymore - too many problems he can't solve, and no Sirens means that he loses his easy button assassination run in a lot of cases. I think I'm comfortable with my list - but I really want Reinholdt. Any suggestions on cuts?

Your list is pretty tight - not sure what you could drop. I like the jacks, but that might be the only place there is to make room.

Yeah . Right now it's looking like the Basher'll have to go. That gives me 6 points after Reinholdt. Doc, Bosun, and Taryn?

Yeah. I like Doc and Taryn I think. I'd have to re-read Bosun.

I played two painful, but competative games last night that I will throw up.
 
Game one was:
 
Butcher3
~Torch
~Spriggan
Max Black Dragons
IF Kovnik
Max Nyss Hunters
Eliminators x2
eEyriss
Ogrun Bokur
War Dog...that I think I forgot to field.
 
Vs.
 
Gorten
~Earthbreaker
Thor
Boomhowlers
Kayazy Assassins
Ayanna and Holt
Arcanist Corp
Gorman
Rhupert da Piper
 
I give him 1st turn so that I get the linear obstical for B3 to hide behind.  He runs everything up.  I run everything up as well, a boomhowler makes a tough roll.
 
He runs up his assassins and fails one charge on an eliminator.  Boomies run up to tie up the middle and right flank.  Earthbreaker knocks down an argus and drifts a piece of terrain in front of me.
 
I alocate 3 to Torch and energizer everything but B3 forward...camping 0 behind the wall.  Torch charges an assassin and sprays Alexia boosting hit/damage but only doing 5...lighting her on fire.  Nyss and Eyriss combine to only kill two boomies.  Argusses kill another and one spints in to block the earthbreaker.  Eliminators kill one Assassin.  Total for the turn is two passed terror checks, and about 8/11 tough.  Less productive than I would have liked...but it does not really matter anyway.  
 
Earthbreaker gets three.  A lane is cleared for Earthbreaker, Gorten feats everything back.  His Kayazy miss ALL of their attacks against my Eliminators for a little justice.  And then Thor gives EB boosted damage and the Earthbreaker knocks down Butcher by hitting a pikeman that was feated back into him.  Then kills him with its 4th additional shot.  Moral of the story is...B3 is about 2" to far forward.  B3 would have died to average dice, and average additional shots, even with the Bokur shield guarding one.  I think camping 3 would have been safe, but to me these games are meant to teach you the limitations of your army/caster.  Nothing venturned nothing gained...even in death.
 
 
Game #2
Vlad3 tier
~Drago
~War Dog
Max Outriders
Max Outriders
Min Ulhans
Min Ulhans
Drakhun + Dis
Drakhun + Dis
Markov
Fenris
 
Vs.
 
eDenny Tier
~Nightmare
~Nightwretch x2
~Scarlock
Siren x2
Min Blackbanes
Max Bane Knights x2
Pistol Wraiths x2
Machine Wraith
 
He gets first turn and runs everything forward.
 
I go next and activate Vlad 1st.  I should have done the Dog first so that I could move back a few inches (hell, I should have turned around and killed the dog to get it out of my way, I realized immediately what I had done, 1st model activated and I had made a game losing mistake.)...but instead I sit there on the deployment line and put out my buffs.  Everything spreads WAY out onto the flanks so that when he comes up to feat on Vlad he cannot get the majority of the rest of my army.  
 
Denny moves up and feats, only catching about 1/3 of my army, but she gets Vlad.  Pursuit goes up on a unit of Outriders, Ghost Raiders jam, and Nightmare advances, ready to eat my caster.
 
I figure that I have one shot at keeping Vlad Alive at this point.  He activates first and casts Dash, then tries to snipe Rengrave with a razorwind...snakeyes on damage.  Now my Ulhans can charge through his Incoporeal jam, three make it to Nightmare but one misses.  Two lackluster damage rolls later and he is out an arm and movement.  I decided that I need to proc persuit and kill a lot of stuff with the outriders, then uses them, Drago, and Markov to screen my caster.  Edenny can get to him, but he needs to clear at least two models to do it.
 
eDenny takes half an hour to kill two models and teliports Vlad into threat range of a walking Nightmare.  I think he kills Vlad with a focus to spare.  Camping the three that I used to try to kill Rengrave would have made it very tight.  Once again, if Vlad were 2" farther back I think this game would have slid my way very quickly.  It is really impossible to say for sure, since a change of position of that much could have completely altered Brian's gameplan.  
 
Message of the day, when you think you are cutting things close...just move your caster back 2".