Tourney Prep Game

Alright, so next Saturday is the second Steamroller Tournament hosted by CTU Koblenz (a LGS). It's a 35 points, 2-List, 40 minutes Deathclock tournament. The scenarios featured are Overrun, Supply and Demand, A Flag too far, and - if there's a fourth round - Command and Control.

Luckily, I managed to get a practice game in yesterday against Arides. We both had two lists made to choose from, and for scenario we chose Supply and Demand (because I forgot four flags at home and we were playing at our FLGS).

While my brother was playing "unclocked", I tracked my time a special way - I made an iPod playlist which was exactly 40 minutes (well, 40:03...). Due to a lack of pictures taken (and a great number of unprocessed M&tMs), this won't get it's own video report, but I thought it could be worth featuring here.

So this is the initial table set-up. I chose Irusk, and he chose his Kraye Tier 4 list.

My list:
Kommandant Gurvaldt Irusk
+ Black Ivan
Iron Fang Pikemen (max) w/ UA
Widowmakers
Great Bears of Gallowswood
Greylord Ternion
Kayazy Eliminators
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator
Saxon Orrik

His list:
Jeremiah Kraye
+ Hunter x2
+ Centurion
+ Stormclad
Ranger x2
Gun Mage Captain Adept

He got first turn, but gave it to me. I deploy most of my force, and then he deploys... Kraye. Everything else has AD. God gracious. And seven inches are really close to the table edge. Still, I press forward agressively, with Superiority on Ivan and Iron Flesh on the IFP, and some clouds for good measure. At first, he thinks that he chose the wrong list for this scenario. He jams my great bears and WM with rangers and a hunter, so they don't do much. On the other side, the KE stab down a ranger unit by themselves after runniung to engage. However, his Hunter based firepower really proves superior - the objectives are large base, and thus susceptible to armor piercing. And their "flammable" ability makes it very hard for infantry to both take them out in melee AND hold the zone afterwards. So he blows mine up, and in response, I "blow up" Kraye, with the Reinholdt + full focus Irusk assault combo.

Victory via Casterkill for me. Arides, however, probably was hampered by the fact that this list had even more special rules than the pStryker brick, with all the jacks being cavalry, also by misremembering the rules for linear obstacles and not asking. Otherwise, the centurion could've really dug into Ivan. On to our redux:

Arides:
VIP: Hunters. One killed Kolsk, got missed afterwards, moved away, and in tandem with the other, they blew my objective up.
VUP: The Stormclad. On feat turn, his sword missed an IFP, and he killed one with his fist, and that's all.
Biggest Blunder: Forgetting his own rules and therefor misplaying Kraye's feat turn.
Changes to list: The stormclad might switch for a cheaper jack and a second GMCA.


Marth:
VIP: Kayazy Eliminators. They occupied the righthand ranger unit through a run-engage, then they ninja-knife-stabbed the unit to death, and then they charged and finished Kraye.
VUP: The Widowmakers - they got jammed all game, and when they were unengaged, they missed.
Biggest Blunder: I charged my IFP all over, forgetting the rules of formation. Thankfully, Arides let me undo that.
Changes to list: Uhm... none, actually. It's working quite fine so far. And I know the value of Widowmakers, so they're staying.

Feel free to comment!

I hope you enjoyed the read. Until next time, farewell!