This years TempleCon happened to be my first TempleCon, and first Con in general. I was very hyped to go there as it meant a lot of gaming and a lot of fun. I am a fairly inexperienced tournament player, or rather was since I played 6 tournaments since December, which is quite a good track record (my W-L is not so good though). I went with my club, the NJ S.O.B.s to TempleCon and had an absolute blast. I met so many awesome people and had so many cool games, won or lost, I don’t know where to start.
Little did I know what was expecting me.
When I started with the High Noon tournament on Friday morning, I did not have many hopes to win, I just hoped not to embarrass myself. This was due to the fact that I was quite inexperienced, and in addition there just was a new update released, which made two lists I used, eMorghoul and Mordikaar (and Hexeris to some extent), not usable in the way I did use them before. I had a few good test games with Engine of Destruction Makeda, so I picked her as my first caster and Mordikaar with Ferox as my second (this particular decision would later bite me). My games were rather uneventful, as I slowly learned what the opponents’ casters do and don’t due to a rather limited field I used to play against. I learned what Foxhole is with CRA’d Longgunners and was introduced to various other shenanigans, all being a great learning experience. I ended up dropping from the tournament after four games with a 1-3 record (Makeda did destroy some after all), but I felt I understood the way to play in the future that much better.
Thinking I was prepared quite well, I started building lists for the Midnight Madness 75 point Deadly-Duos, hoping to get some surprise wins due to general inexperience. I picked eMakeda and eMagnus as my casters, mainly because I could, but I thought Magnus feat would work well with Killbox and two Renegades never hurt (at least not me). That tournament went pretty badly for me, mainly due to lack of filthy feats it seems. Adding dice to all your stuff just doesn’t mess the opponent up enough, and I was too conservative with Magnus. First game I lost against Jeremy (theblklotus) and his combination of Testament and Amon. It appears that 75 point games feed Amon’s Synergy rather well, hehe. My second game I played against Bill “Sevwall” Hayes, and that too, I lost rather quickly. Mulg seems to be quite fast even though he does not look that way, and after placing Makeda poorly he killed her rather fast. The Blitzer finished Magnus, and promptly I was done for the night.
Skorne Elixir
The next day was the State of the Art tournament, and while I had 50 points painted, I did not have a 50 point army painted, so I did not participate. Instead, I walked around and gave moral support to my fellow Skorne Tyrants, especially Apollo (apollosun), who did quite
well until he lost to the eventual TempleCon Champion in a very tight match. Also noteworthy, Apollo and Harold (PG_HighLordJr) met in the final round of the State of the Art, didn’t finish the game and ended up having a tie, giving BOTH a loss effectively. Was a very tight game of Xerxis vs. eMakeda, so it seems yet to be determined who is the real badass of Skorne, I tend to lean towards Bruce though (Makeda, since she is the Boss).
Next tournament on the schedule then was the next Midnight Madness 25 Death Race. Somehow, I woke up towards the nighttime tournaments, and felt fitter than during the daytime, this could be partly attributed to the newly discovered Skorne-Elixir(Mountain Dew Code Red), which safely brought me through all stages of the following tournament.
I decided to try something new and ran a Xerxis Strikeforce, which worked very well. I played two quick test games, and after winning them, I had a good feeling for that tournament. The list was:
Tyrant Xerxis
-Molik Karn
-Titan Gladiator
Full Cetrati
Min. Beast Handlers
Feralgeist
The main idea was to set up the Alphastrike with Inhospitable Ground and have Molik Karn kill stuff. Plan B was to slam the Titan in and then clean up. What I started doing right away was Molik Karn harrassment, I would charge him in damage a target as much as I could (usually with Fury and Enrage) and then side-step and Fatewalker back out. This hit ‘n run proved to be very efficient in those small point games, as a P+S 23 Combostrike with 4d6 can easily take out an aspect or system with nice dice (dealing 37 unmitigated damage on average). In addition, I always could use Xerxis feat to give him another die on the damage making him a P+S 18 with 4d6 base and potentially 6 attacks, which would deal 33 damage on average versus a 20 ARM target. With some decent rolling, I did not need to boost hits at all, so I was left with enough fury to Fate Walker out again.
That's what happens if you get charged.
The Certrati would keep Xerxis safe and allow him to charge out from behind them. The Feralgeist got changed to one point, so I took him with me to salvage Molik Karn, if needed. While he doesn’t give boosted stuff anymore, he still lets you control him a bit longer and with Weaponmaster he still dishes out quite good damage. Also, it means that the opponent has to kill him again, which can be annoying.
The first game I played was against Cygnar lead by Nemo. He brought a Thunderhead along with some little fellows. Basically Molik killed his Arcane Shielded Thunderhead after surviving a barrage and then my opponent had some horrible rolls, meaning that he killed the rest of his army with lightning, leaving me virtually untouched. Molik Karn died, Feralgeist took over and he had to kill him again, leaving Nemo without Focus, after which he conceded. I killed 22/25 points.
Second game was interesting. I faced Circle and after a little skirmish and pulling by his Druids, he forgot to leech Fury, Gorax Frenzied and hit Kromac for 12 damage or so and then he charged/jumped Kromac in. End of story: Xerxis survives with 1 HP, opponent concedes. Was still on my first turn, so that worked quite well.
In the third game I faced Garrin with his Circle using Kromac. Molik Karn managed to charge his Lord of the Feast on turn one, killed him, side-stepped into Kromac and hit him for 8 damage before he retreated again. Kromac transfered on the Satyr which took out his mind. Long story short, the Gladiator later slammed the Woldwarden who flew about 1.5″ short of Kromac, who then went to kill Xerxis.
In the fourth game I was up against David Lustig, a fellow S.O.B.. I won that game with amazing attack rolls, and Molik Karn killing a Mauler and half an Axer in one go. The Feralgeist controlled the Mauler, and he charged Borka into Xerxis, drawing a free strike that damaged him for 17. That basically killed the Axer (both Borka and the Axer had 2-3 HP left), and left Borka with too few Fury to kill Xerxis (sitting on 3 Fury). David conceded thereafter and I was 3-1.
Last game was against Sam from Guts ‘n Gears, and honorary S.O.B., and after playing really poorly and leaving Garreth a charging lane on Xerxis, I lost to his Retribution quite quickly. I still have no idea what all their stuff does, in addition to it all looking the same.
In the end I finished 3-2, which made me quite happy. In addition I took 2nd place in the Speed Demon without trying (not that this benefited me in any way), and scored quite high on the killing award, too. Overall I was very happy with my performance and had an absolute blast playing 25 points. Garrin later went on to qualify for the Championship (seems I was quite close), and David won the Speed Demon giving him a Grind game!
Overall TempleCon was extremely awesome, and I am looking forward seeing many people again next year or maybe earlier! I learned a whole lot about other armies and how to think successfully playing WM/H, and I am looking forward to the next couple tournaments coming up.
Mike
