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2019 Texas Masters Recap

We just wrapped up The Texas Masters Age of Sigmar  2019 Season! In my opinion it was a great inaugural season.

If you are not sure what the Texas Masters is here is a link to the full site to check it out: Link

In this recap of the TX Masters I will break it down in to several parts. Click on the titles to go the parts that interest you.

  1. Pre-Tournament thoughts
  2. Tournament winners and placings
  3. The Lists
  4. My Games
  5. List Adjustments and Thoughts
  6. Painting
  7. The 2020 Masters Season
  8. Travel, Accommodation and Food

 

The Awards Table:

 

Pre-Tournament Thoughts

Check out the full write up here: Link

 

Tournament Winners and Placings

Here are the Final results from the Tournament. Matt was the only competitor to go 5/0. This tournament featured 20 very good players and 20 very good lists. So it was not surprising that 19 out of 20 had at least 1 loss. I am not that familiar with Matt, but word on the street is that he is a 40k transfer with less that a year of AOS under his belt. Congratulation, hope to see you at a GT soon.

James West continues to impress with this Archaon list. He consistently wins games with it. I would like to interview him and just get some insight into how he uses it and his thought process. Great guy and happy that he made second.

Tim Frisbee came in 3rd. ‘Tim you owe me a beer’, I feel I had to talk to into going 2 different times. He was very back and forth on the trip. The way I see it this could be a once in a lifetime opportunity, because there is no guarantee that we will make it back in the coming years.

Marco Hernandez made 4th with his Ironjawz. Marco seems like a fun energetic person, it is nice to have 2 players for the Weirdnobz in the top 5. Also I believe he is part of the Everchosen Podcast.

Andrew Carlson rounds out the top with his Daughters of Khaine. He won Houston Warzone this past year and he is a staple of the GT scene in Texas. If you ever face Carlson expect to have an intense game.

2019 texas masters top 10

masters 11 to 20

As for the other 15 players, most I know personally or have seen at a tournament. Everyone seemed to have fun hard fought games. Just looking back at the field of entries I am even surprised I did as well as I did.

Couple of fast observations about placings:

  • Daughters are still a force to be reckoned with.
    • I am not sure how they are doing internationally, but here in Texas they have been a powerhouse for over a year.
  • Blades/Khorne could just not keep up. “James does not count, he is Everchosen”.
  • Orruk Warclans and Skaven had a strong showings.
  • NO Slaanesh, Fireslayers, or Bonereapers – Strange to not seen any of these.

I also want to acknowledge the awesome prize support and gifts at the tournament. We received Masters patches, a dice tray and objective markers. All the trophies were custom printed and very nice. Matt did a very good job of organizing it. I thought the scoring was fair and there was a nice mix of mission. The missions did not favor me at time : (, but they were a good mix.

 

The Lists

Here are each players list. This is a great recourse for all you aspiring AOS champions to check out and get some ideas from.

The first list is Matt Robisch the overall winner. The rest of the list are in alphabetical order.

Matt Robisch:

Andrew C:

Bryan L:

Christopher S:

Daniel D:

Dimitri H:

Goat:

James W:

Jeffrey V:

Jeremy C:

Jonathan S:

Kit R:

Tournament winning list DOK

Kyle V:

Marco H:

Marcus M:

Matthew R:

Ryan C:

Spencer B:

Time F:

This is a fair representation of the current Texas Meta.  However during the 2019 season Slaanesh, Fireslayers and FEC were featured heavily at tournaments.

Talking to many of the contestants at the Masters and the Doubles tournament, it looks like we could be seeing KO,OBR, and Tzeentch featured heavily in the 2020 season.

 

 

My Games

I took my lessons learned from the practice games I had played and applied it through out the tournament. I think after the 5 games that I played I am very proficient in running the list. I did make a few mistakes in the tournament, but all in all no giant blunders. I still think that with the correct missions I could have won another game or 2. The list did ok against most of the opposing armies, it was just that the missions were not in my favor. ‘I have intentionally separate missions from list. I feel that each work with the other but are totally separate things. Some missions I can handle certain list/factions. While on other missions the list/factions get almost auto wins. I just want to make a point that I count missions and lists as 2 distinct entities.’

I could have played a little better, but I was on par for my 1 per game mistake, so I cannot complain much.

My list:

Plague Priest on Plague Furnace (200)
– General
– Command Trait : Master of Rot and Ruin
– Artifact : Liber Bubonicus

Warlock Bombardier (120)
– Lore of Warpvolt Galvanism : More-more-more Warp Power!

Warlock Engineer (100)
– Lore of Warpvolt Galvanism : More-more-more Warp Power!

UNITS
20 x Clanrats (120)
– Rusty Blade
20 x Clanrats (120)
– Rusty Blade
20 x Clanrats (120)
– Rusty Blade

1 x Ratling Gun (60)

6 x Stormfiends (520)

40 x Plague Monks (280)
– Woe-stave
– 2 x Icon of Pestilence
– 2 x Contagion Banner
– 2 x Doom Gongs
– 2 x Bale Chimes

Warplightning Cannon (180)

Warplightning Cannon (180)

Game 1

Mission: Focal Points

Secondary/Hidden Agenda: Slay, Obliterate

Opponent: Jeffrey V

Opponent Secondary/Hidden Agenda: Invade, Secret Mission

Opponents list breakdown:

I was very concerned about target priority with his list. He had lots of bodies to go along with hard hitting heroes. I think this list can do a lot of things and win some battles. It seems tooled up to take on any mission.

 

Pre-Game:

I know Jeffrey, he is a great guy and highly thought of in the community. Also I wanted to give him credit for the Texas Masters Logo, that you see on the site and in this blog post. He also has made many other logos and designs for the AOS community in Texas.

I had a chance to look over his list a few days before the tournament. I was very impressed with how he crafted the list and the synergy it had. I was honestly worried, I did not know what targets to prioritize.

I chose Slay, because I thought he would at some point have his Bloodthirster ripping through my lines. I picked Obliterate because he had many 1 model units and several 10 model units. I had a good bit of confidence I could kill 3 in a turn….at some point of the game.

 

Deployment:

He would out drop me so I had to play it safe and build up a nicely protected zone around all my shooting. However, just in case he gave me first turn I wanted to the ability to at least do some damage so I made sure I would be able to move my Stormfiends up and have range on his leading units. I placed my Holes close to his Objectives to keep them threatened

I placed my Fiends and Cannons to the Left Center and my Furnace and Monks to the Right Center.

 

He set up his forces with a strong center and a little to each flank. He did not have a bad set up, However Jeffery made a huge mistake. He did not drop is Battalion as one drop. I ended up dropping before him and was actually confused, ‘I said I am done, where is your Marauders?’ I think then he realized he had messed up.

 

I sort of assessed the board and decided I would take the first turn. I had the opportunity to possibly take out a few of his units.

 

Turn 1

I took the first turn, Cast my +1 attack buff on my Monks. Then cast More More Warppower on my Fiends.

The army just shuffled forward to take the center point and keep a good double layer screen on my gun line. I moved up the Stormfiends to get in range of his Bloodreavers and his L Warshrine. I could have put all my shots into the shrine, however I thought it best to try and take out his Reavers. I put 2 shots each from the Windlaunchers into his 3 units of Reavers. I was able to roll nicely and take out over half of each unit.  No more shooting was in range and I was not planning on charging.

To my surprise he did not use a command points to save any of the units. His center and his L unit of Reavers were gone from battle shock and his R one was down to 5 models. I did not get my Secret agenda of Obliterate yet.

In his first turn he pushed hard to the R. I was a little surprised he did not just push hard up the middle. He was probably being cautious with all the shooting. He did not charge this turn. My guess is that he was just getting into position with all his units and hoping for the double turn.

He took the center point and held the back 2.

At the end of one, the score was 4 to 4.

 

Turn 2

I won the roll off and took the turn.

I buffed my Monks, cast More More, and did a few mortal wounds with the Furnace.

I pushed my L flank hard towards his L objective. I ran and managed to get a few rats within 6 of the objective. I was in range to shoot his Marauders. He was out of range to save them with battle shock. The rest of the army shuffled up to contest the the center and bring the guns into better position.

I shot both Windlaunchers at his Marauders. I took out most of the unit. My cannons did not manage to do any wounds to his stoker and Priest.

No charges by me.

I ended the turn with 6 points

My disposition at the end of my turn 2:

It was time for him to make his move. He put all his buffs on his units. He pushed forward and slammed into my front line. He made combat with A Warshrine, The marauders, and Skarr. The line of 20 rats should have gone down. But I was able to remove rats in a strategic enough manner that his units were minimally effective. I was also able to remove them in a way that brought them fully in range of the Furnace and would not have to take battleshock. After it was all over he was not able to kill the rats holding the center point, so he ended the turn only making 1 point.

My line held:

End of 2 total score 10 to 5

Turn 3

Jeffery got the double turn it, this was definitely going to hurt me. He was in great position to take out my screen and possibly more.

He had kept his Bloodthirster at the back of the board keeping me from bringing anything in through the R hole. I question this strategy, however it did keep him alive for three turns. This turn he moved him up to the middle of the field and the pushed hard with his prince on the right he also had his marauders preparing to smash my monks.

He made a long charge with his prince against my Furnace and some Bloodreaver against my monks. I was in a bad spot but if I could weather the storm I would have an opportunity to do some damage.

Amazingly the Furnace lived through combat with 3 wound remaining, it was also able to do a few wounds in combat to the Prince. The Monks were gone.

He scored his secondary objective ‘secret mission’ this turn when he brought Skarr in next to a board edge and then removed him from play.

He scored 5 points.

The screen is down!:

I was able to kill the Prince with prayers from the Furnace. More More was cast on my Fiends.

I shuffled my shooting around units around into better position. My unit of Rats on the L re positioned to receive a charge from the Warshrine next turn. He had also moved far enough off of his R objective for me to send the Rattling Gun through and claim. I also ran my Furnace to retake my R objective, “I barley had enough models in range to let it move”.

In the shooting phase I took out his Bloodthrister with my Cannons, I overcharged and rolled a 1 for power number. The Fiends helped with the Bloodthirster and cleaned up the Marauders. I managed to get Slay and Obliterate this turn.

Lots of shooting, cleaned up most of the big threats from the board. I scored 6 points.

I won the roll for the next turn, and Jeffery conceded the victory. We sort of talked it out and and seeing how I was probably going to kill most of his remaining models in shooting he would not have the ability to score more points than me. The final score was 16 to 10.

Final look at the map from my side:

AAR

This game was possibly closer than it looked. If a few swing would have went his way Jeffery could have made it go all 5 rounds.

I think Jeffery would admit his biggest mistake was not deploying his battalion at one time. killing 2.5 units in my turn gave me a great start. I also expected him to rush the middle early. It took him 2 turns to get over to me. That just gave me more opportunity to take out his units one at a time. I do understand his caution, he did not want to get in range of the cannons. But that all goes back to my target priority, if you hit me with everything at one time there is no way I can kill it all. Another thing he could have done was to leave the small unit of Blood Reavers on the Gnawhole. They did not do much else all game and would have stopped me from ever scoring that back point.

From my end I think I played it effectively. I do not remember any big mistakes that I made.

This game I was able to use my holes and also move around the board to capture points. I felt good about the win, I was very nervous headed into this game. Very fun game against a great guy.

Game 2

Mission: Places of Power

Secondary/Hidden Agenda: Secret Mission, Retake

Opponent: Ryan C

Opponent Secondary/Hidden Agenda: Seize, Overrun

Opponents list breakdown:

I have not had the opportunity to play Orruks EVER. But I am a little familiar with the damage output they can dish out. My primary concern was his Maw-Krusha and a first turn charge. Also he has 4 total Heroes that can move and get onto objectives fast.

Pre-Game:

He would have the option for first turn so I needed to set up a good screen.

This mission was released prior to the tournament and I had circled it in red as my hardest mission. I had played it a few times with my list and it was always a problem. Primarily because I only have 3 Heroes and 2 of them don’t like being on the front line. I usually just have to push my Furnace up and hope it lives while a kill the opponents HQs.

 

Deployment:

Ryan set up his forces in a good even spread across his deployment zone. He would be able to threaten all three objectives by at least turn 2. He put his Maw Krusha center.

I had won the roll to pick sides, so I picked the side with the giant hill. I put 2 Gnawholes in the corners.’I made a mistake, I measured out to have my hole be at least 12 inches from the corner Objectives. However I needed to be within 3 to hold them.’ The rest of my forces were set with Canons center, Monks L and Fiends R. The screen was layered.

Lines have been drawn:

I have the high ground:

 

Turn 1

Ryan had the choice and he went first, I think he wanted to get the alpha strike on my army.

He cast a few spells and moved his army up. The big move he made was he moved up and prepared to charge with his Maw-Krusha.

He made the charge and took out 20 rats. ‘I don’t think this was the best plan. He had never faced the raw power of the Stormfiends with More More on them. I am not against rushing my line, just not one model at a time.’

He scored 0 this turn

Big scary knocking at the door:

For my turn I buffed my Monks with the Furnace, he was out of range for it to do any damage at this point.

I pushed my L side up the field to get into a better position. In the shooting phase I took out his Krusha and did a few wounds to his unit of pigs on the L.

I scored 0

Looking ok right now:

 

Turn 2

He won the roll and pushed everything forward. Not getting the double was ok, I had enough of a screen to hold for 1 more turn.

Ryan made some very nice charge rolls on the R side. On the L my Rats got hit with 3 different units. The one thing I did not want to happen did. He made a very long charge roll with his large unit in the center. It allowed him to lock my monks. I was hopping to keep them out. If I could have I would have hit him full force and possibly taken out 3 of his units. Or at least hampered them.

By the end of combat all the Clanrats were dead and a few of the monks also. I did a few wounds back but nothing impressive. He also locked my Fiends down with his Pigs.

He was able to capture the L and R points, he ended the round scoring 2 points.

During my turn the furnace put out some mortal wounds on his Boyz. I cast More More on the Fiends again.

I pulled my monks back to form a screen around the bell and guns. The cannons shuffled up.

I was able to use the Cannons to kill the pigs that were locking my Fiends down. The Fiends proceeded to take out a unit of Boyz and his 2 war chanters. He only had 1 HQ alive so I still had a chance to catch up. He was able to bring back his 10 model unit of Boyz, because of the Warchanter. He placed them on the R objective and blocked out my Gnawhole with them. That probably lost me the game, because I was not able to send a Hero through in turn 3.

At this point I was winning the war of attrition, but loosing the objectives battle. I score 0 points

Still king of the hill:

 

Turn 3

I needed to win the double turn. However it was not to be. If I could have gotten it, I could have possibly shot him away from the R objective and been able to move someone through on turn 4.

For his turn he withdrew his forces to protect his shaman and make sure I could not get to him this turn.

He score 2 putting the his total to 4.

During my turn I moved into position with the Furnace to take the center point. I shot his unit away from the R objective opening the way to send an Engineer through. However I was not able to get the range on his Shamman. The monks moved up and took out a unit of his Boyz, and would be set up nice to take out his other units next turn.

at the end of my turn I score 1. We did the math and he would score 3 points if he won the roll to go first. However if I won the roll the odds were in my favor I could kill his Shaman and I would end up winning. And of course I lost the roll he went first and basically won the game on the roll.

The final score was 7 to 1, However the game was a bit closer than the score would indicate. If your not first your last!

MVP of the game:

 

AAR

Great game and I was happy to get a chance to play the new Orruk book. I made a few mistake during the game such as; taking retake as a hidden agenda. That would have just been hard to complete with my list in the best circumstance. The placement of my Gnawholes could have been better. And I should have screened my Monks better, ‘but in my defense I did not plan on him making an 11 inch charge through a small game in the line’.

Ryan played a clean game. I still go back and forth on being so aggressive with his General turn 1. If he could have waited for support we would have rolled me. However the Krusha would have had to live through 1 or 2 rounds of shooting to do that. So in the end that is the gamble.

I would like to reiterate, Stormfiends with More More are nasty.

 

Game 3

Mission: Ebb and Flow

Secondary/Hidden Agenda: Center Ground, Dominate

Opponent: Kit R

Opponent Secondary/Hidden Agenda: Terrify, Invader

Opponents list breakdown:

Tournament winning list DOK

I played Death a large portion of last year, so I am very familiar with the units and how it works. My biggest worries in the list are the GGReapers and Arkham. This list has a good bit of utility and board presence.

On a side note, this is considered on of the best painted armies in the state. Kit has worked very hard to build and paint an awesome collection of models. So if nothing else it would be a thrill to play against such a nicely painted force. ‘I almost destroyed his Mortis Engine with my clumsy hand, SOOO sorry about that Kit.’

Pre-Game:

I had played this mission before in a practice game, so I was a bit familiar with the deployment and my tactics. My number one goal was to kill the General, I could not afford units coming back. I would screen out the GGReapers and try not to target them until Arkhan was off the board.

I do like this mission it has an interesting setup and has lots of objectives to fight over. I am glad I decided to play-test this mission, it gave me some good insite into the map.

I picked centerground for my Hidden. This was the perfect Battleplan to do it, because there are 4 objectives equal distance from the center. The odds of me completing are very high. Also center ground is one of those Hidden Agendas that you should really look at the tournament packet and decided from the start when you will take it. ‘pick the Battleplans that has 2 or more objective close to the center.’

 

Deployment:

I deployed all my shooting to the L of my deployment zone and laid down a large screen. I put my Monks and Furnace on the top R. They would hold the top and swing down. I did this because the bottom L would be crowded and there was a bit of terrain blocking them from the top Objective if I deployed them center.

I placed my Gnawholes to threaten his top and bottom Obj.

He would out drop me so I had to be prepared for him to take first turn and possibly make some charges. However I did have my Fiends in position to move up and shoot Arkhan if he gave me first turn.

Kit deployed in a balanced manner with his Ghost up top, and his Skeletons on the bottom with Arkhan in the middle and his heroes spreed out to support.

 

Turn 1

On this Battlplan you have to pick one of your points to be worth 5 if it is taken. I picked #3 my top R.

He took first turn. Then the worst thing possible happened. He cast the portal, and then through the portal he cast Curse of Years on my Fiends. Rolled a couple of 6s, then a couple of 5, then two 4s, then a 3, uh oh, then the 2 showed up!!! I was like oh no.. this game is over.  I was a bit distraught at this point. Luckily in my dismay I turned to James W, and said My Stormfiends just got hand of dusted off the table turn 1, Its over. Thankfully James was up to date on the changes to the spell. He was like; “It does not remove units anymore. You have to keep rolling until you hit a 1”. I called the TO and asked, he agreed that was the change. Kit did not realizes the change. So I pulled up all the FAQs but could not find it in any FAQ. After searching for 10 or more minutes if dawned on me that his Warscroll changed with the Bonereapers release. I asked Kit to check the new Warscroll and sure enough it had changed from just removing the unit to having to keep rolling. Thank the heavens. I had told Kit that when I had thought that they were removed that I would continue to play the game, but that for all intense and purposes the game was over. The Stormfiends are 25% of my points and they do 75% of the damage. I would have very little chance of winning any game. Once it was all worked out and the mortal wounds were all tallied 12 wounds were put on my Fiends.

The rest of his turn was very straight forward, he pushed his GGR to the middle and his Hexwraiths to my L flank. He made the charge with his Hexwraiths and they started working over the Rats on that side.

At the end of his turn he collected 4 points.

The noose tightens:

 

During my turn I put as many shots as I could into Arkhan from the Fiends they did not do any significant damage. Not a bunch of good stuff in the shooting phase.

I also shuffled my Monks up the board but they failed a long charge. I moved all my rats up to take the center point and get ready to receive the charge next turn.

I scored 4

 

Turn 2

He won the roll, I wanted it, but think I would be ok without it. I once again picked OBJ 3 at the top as the 5 point OBJ.

He pushed everything up and did not do much with casting this turn. Kit did manage to get Curse of Years off again, but it did not do too much damage to my Fiends. ‘he did not cast Danse Macabre on any of his units. I was very surprised by this. I think it is one of the best Spells in the game. At the end of the game I mentioned to him he needed to make sure he was casting it every turn.’

I was also expecting him to use his Chainrasps to charge the Monks, but he stayed in position on his objective.

He moved Arkhan into the center of the field. “I would have advised against that at this point of the game. Keeping him back for another turn would have been a better move I think. I asked him at the end of the game why he moved him so close, and Kit laughed and said he misplayed it.’

He slammed in my front 2 units of Rats with his Mortis and his GGR. His HexW, charged my Fiends.  His rolls in combat were not the best and I was able to command point the center unit in battleshock so my screen did not fall yet.

This turn could have gone much worse for me. I made it through with minimal losses.

They got me surrounded! 

This would turn out to be a decisive turn for me. He picked his south OBJ at the 5 pointer.

I used the Rattling gun and the Engineers to take out his Hexwraiths. If that had failed I was willing to use the Cannon to also shoot and free up my Fiends. However Because I rolled Nicely with the the other units shooting I was able to use the Cannon to take out his flying Vampire at the top. I used the Fiends to Kill Arkhan.

In close combat the rats did a few wounds. But the Monks had made the charge up top. They hit the Chainrasps full on with max buffs. I ended up rolling around 140 dice wounding on 3s against his Chains, they melted.

I had taken back control of the center point. I scored 4 points in the turn.

Clearing out the ghost:

 

 

Turn 3

He won the roll and I picked OBJ 3 as the 5 pointer.

His turn he cast Danse Macabre on the GGRs. My screen was about gone I just needed it to hold this turn and I think I would be ok. The Mortis charged and this unit of 10 Chainrasps that had been hiding behind the tower charged the Fiends and took them down to 2 models. I used Scurry away to get my Bombadier out of the combat. The Clan Rat screen was gone. He scored 4 points. It looked like it was about to turn in his favor.

My turn I cast More More and used all the shooting I had left to try and take out his last 2 Chainrasps.

I then moved up with the Monks and I needed to make about a 5 inch charge to get the GGR into combat. I rolled an 8 and it was game on. I used the Monks to take out all his GGRs and did a few wounds to the models in combat with the Fiends. The game had shifted to my favor.

I scored 4. I told Kit that I think the game was about over and depending on the roll-off I could finish the game with my turn.

Monks aint afraid of no Ghost:

 

Turn 4

I won the roll and said we could call it, I was not trying to sound like a dick, just extending the offer. Kit wanted to play it out. So I shot and hacked his remaining units and at the end of my turn all that he had on the board was his one unit of Skeletons. I collected 5 points.

Kit tried to run his Skeletons so he could get (Invade), he was a bit short. I was able to complete both my hidden agendas. The final score was 15 to 12

AAR

This game was a bit close also, I think if he would have kept Arkhan back a bit he may have won. Or if I would have gotten an early double it could have shifted more in my favor early. I think it was a close one.

Super surprised with the Monks, they were hands down the MVPs of the game. They ended up taking out; a unit of 20 chainraps, a unit of 20 Grimghast Reapers, a Necromancer, finishing off a Mortus and not taking a single wound all game!

Kit was a fun opponent and I hope to see him at a GT in the near future.

Once again I like this mission, would hope to see it at another tournament.

The one thing that sucks with my list is once the screen is down the game is over.

Also I need more movement from the Furnace. It is great when I don’t need it to move.

Game 4

Mission: Escalation

Secondary/Hidden Agenda: Attrition, LineBreaker

Opponent: Marcus M

Opponent Secondary/Hidden Agenda: Overrun, Defend

Opponents list breakdown:

Blisterskin is worrisome on this mission. The leadership screams are a bit of a pain from the Flayers. He will also start his first turn with 3 CP, and have the chance to add more…thats not great for me. All in all the list is not the problem, however the list in combination with the mission is a big uphill battle. Marcus built a very nice list, with lots of threat range and buff synergy. His list is made to play a mission like Escalation.

 

Pre-Game:

The battleplan and match ups had not been released for this mission until the morning of. I found out I would play Marcus and his FEC. I was ok with that, my list has the potential to do well against FEC. But once I found out the mission I was like….well that sucks. I would have to deploy so far back I would be at a disadvantage for a turn or 2 unless he rushed me.

Of course he would out drop me and could take all three OBJ in his first turn. His army is so fast that he could dictate battles and match-ups.

I took Attrition, because he starts with a small number of units on the board. I took line-breaker, because he only has three battline units to kill.

 

Deployment:

I placed my GHoles in threat range of the 2 corner OBJ. I had to super layer my screens, because I did  not need him rushing me and taking out a unit then poping a CP and taking out a second one. Also it is a good idea to keep the screens loose, because several of his units fly and if he got a big roll for the charge I did not want him jumping the front line and tying up the second. Another concern during deployment is that he would have 2 units coming in outflank at some point. I had to be prepared of that and keep the 9 inch bubble screened off. My side basically looked like a triangle.

Shields at maximum:

Marcus had plenty of room to set up, he had a strong center and put his Ghouls out to the flanks to take the corner points. His set up was standard nothing crazy going on here.

sorry for color we were by a window:

 

 

Turn 1

He took first turn and made his Battalion moves. In his Hero phase to buffed some units, he did not roll a 4 for Hellish, so he is only at 3 CP. He cast the Barricade in the middle of the map.

He moved the Ghouls out wide to block the holes and take the points. Then he moved the Horrors up the center to take the middle and stay next to the Barricade for the buff.

He managed to complete Overrun and he scored 3 points.

In my turn I pushed all the screens forward and made taking the R OBJ the priority. It was the only one I had a real chance of taking. He had blocked out the Holes nicely so no traveling.

In the shooting phase I did very little damage, only killing 1 Horror.

I did take the R OBJ because I was able to run enough rats within 6.

I scored 1 point.

Moving on up:

 

 

Turn 2

I won the roll.. I honestly debated not taking it. The only thing that I would be able to do is try and take out his Horrors. I decided to take it thinking that it was the best bet was to take out the Horrors and take the center point. That would be the only way for me to get back in the game. Taking the L corner point was probably not going to happen this game.

I cast More More on the Fiends. Then I moved the clan rats up to take the center point. Because of the way he was positioned I could only get about 3 Clanrats within 6 of the center point. I would need to kill a good chuck of Horrors to take the point.  I only killed 2 and was not able to take the center point.

I was made the charge with my R unit of Clanrats and took out 9 Ghouls. He only had 1 left, all I needed him to roll was a 2 or more in battle shock…….he rolled a 1, just as planned!

At the end of 2 I scored 1. Not going great for me.

 

His turn he moved up the Horrors and was prepared to charge with them. He also moved up his Varghulf, he positioned him perfectly, I could not target him with my Cannons if I took the turn. Marcus managed to bring back 2 Horrors from his Varghulf. The Horrors took out a unit of  Clan Rats. If he got the double, it would be nasty for me.

Marcus took the center point back but was not able to get the R point. He scored 2 points.

The Rats need to hold:

 

 

Turn 3

I managed to thankfully win the turn. I buffed my Monks and the Fiends had More More cast on them. The plan was to take out his Horrors 1st and try to get my Cannons in position to take out his Varghulf.

I ended up doing 6 wounds of the Varghulf. I could only get one cannon in position to shoot him. I overcharged and rolled a power number 4. I did a good amount of wounds but is 5++ kept him from dying. I only rolled 1, 1. So the cannon only took 1 wound.  I had moved everything up to be in position to take the center point and make the charge with the Monks if I needed to do that.

At the end of the turn I had taken out the Horrors and almost killed the Varghulf. I was hopping to pop him and get rid of his -1 to hit bubble.

I scored 2.

Wall of Monks:

 

During his turn he moved his Flayers up. He was going to push hard on my L flank with them. It was not a bad idea the building was giving him some cover and they were my closest models so the charge would be a given.

He ended up being 3 inches out of my Rats, he rolled a double 1, Luckily for him the Varghul was within 6 and he used one of his 5 CP to re-roll it. He took out the unit of rats and then used a CP to fight again he pilled into the Monks and did a few wounds.

At the end of his turn he collected 2 CP. Totals at this point was 4 to 7

 

Turn 4

He won the roll to take the turn. He finally brought in a unit of Flayers and ghouls from outflank to try and take the R objective. He moved up his Terrorgheist to the center of the board. He was -1 to hit from the Vargheist. He failed a long charge with the Ghoul Kings. The Flayers were doing work on my L side and had began to put some wounds on the Fiends. I killed a few in Close Combat. Marcus did not take out many models this turn, failing that long charge was the key to my success.

 

In my turn I took out his Terrorgheist and his unit of Flayers. I did this with a combination of Cannons and Fiends. I used the Cannons and my Rattling gun to kill off his Flayers so I could shoot with the fiends at the Ghoul King. It was a great turn for me and I scored 2 points. However at the end of 4 he was leading the points totals 9 to 7. We talked out turn 5 and he was going to win. The only thing I could hope to do was to stop him from getting defend.

Cleaning up this side, But will it be 2 late?

 

Turn 5

I won the roll and tried to shoot his Archregent off the board. If I did that he would not be in position to take out the Monks with anything. I was not able to do it all my shooting rolled low and I was out of range with a good bit of it. All I could hope now was for his to roll low and my monks live.

Well that did not happen and the used his Boss to take out the Monks so in the end he completed Defend.

I tried so hard
And got so far
But in the end
It doesn’t even matter:

AAR

The game was very close. I kept hoping that Marcus would make some huge mistake. He did not. What really won the game for him was taking all the points turn 1 and blocking the GHole on the L OBJ. It was a good game, I was impressed that I did as well as I did.

Once again the lack of mobility looses me the game. This army does what it does very, very well. But what it does not do is move around. I just needs something to help with that….Skitterleap? Drills?

Also I have a FEC army, that I have never played. After this game I am a bit excited to try them out. I think I would run Blisterskin, with a ghoul patrol. It sounds fun for a change up.

Game 5

Mission: Sorcerous Streams

Secondary/Hidden Agenda: Invade, Conserve

Opponent: Dimitri H

Opponent Secondary/Hidden Agenda: Dominate

Opponents list breakdown:

Well other than the rock monsters this list is not scary at all! But Oh yeah those 2 Rogue Idols they are a bit of an issue. He gets a pre-game move from his Warclan. Also he can have the Idols flying 20 inches, re-rolling charges with a 2+ save re-rolling one, and a 5++, then a 6++. Sooo That is going to be a problem, but hey if I can kill them I should be able to win, got to stay positive.

Pre-Game:

Demitri was a great opponent to get to know, we had a long chat before the start of the game discussing our lists and the mission. He was going to have the choice of going first, and with the way this mission was set up he was going to get 6 points to start and probably get 2 first turn charges if not 3. Needless to say I was going to start this game at a disadvantage. I knew the key to victory was getting rid of the Idols. If I could do that I had a chance. However the outlook for the game was very poor and I  sort of came to the conclusion it would probably be a big fat L.

 

Deployment:

I placed my Gnawhols to threaten his L and R Objectives. I tried to triple screen, however I made a small miscalculation and I had my Fiends within 3 inches of the front of the screen. I was packed in tight but I still should have made room to move back some. I stacked my Monks on the R and the Furnace Center R.

Dimitri spread his forces out in a very balanced manor. Is intent was to take the Flanks with Pigs and the center he would rush the Idols, they would be supported by casters and the Archers.

Pre Game Moves:

 

Turn 1

Turn 1 he buffed his center Idol and rushed him across the board. The pigs moved up to get into charge range and he was able to move is back units into position to take the far OBJs.

He made all 3 charges. The rock Idol hit my center and managed to get within 3 of my Fiends pulling them in and he had a few attacks with 3 inch reach. The Pigs hit my screens on the flanks.

Dimitri took out a unit of Clan Rats in the center, the R flank he did a few wounds but I had battle shock immunity because of the Furnace. The Rock Monster put about 9 wounds on my Stormfiends,

All in all if could have been worse for me, I was locked my with Idol, but I was going to shoot it anyway.

He scored 6 points and Dominate.

About to charge:

My turn I felt I was in a good spot to do some damage. First I hit the rock monster with all the Mortals from the Furncase Prayers. I even got a few great Plagues off and after all my rolling and re-rolling I only did like 2 wounds to it. He made tones of 5++ 6++. I cast More More on the fiends.

The Rats in the center and R moved out of close combat. I wanted to free up the charge lanes for the Monks on the L. The rats on the L I planed to re-charge the Pigs, to only get 1 model in and limit his swings back.

The shooting phase…This is were it all came apart. I put all my shots from the fiends into the Idol. The Bombabier and the Pistol from the Engineer into the Idol, I did 10 wounds. I had both Cannons left to fire. I overcharged one and hit a power number 6!!! I did like 1 wound the other cannon did little to no damage. ‘after talking to Dimitri at the end of the game he asked in this phase why I did not overcharge both cannons. I said because I only had 1 Engineer in range. I actually had 2, but I took it for granted that I only had 1 and did not overcharge. This was my second mistake of the game.’ after all the shooting the Idol had 4 wounds remaining. His swings back would hurt.

In close combat the Monks took out the Pigs on the R and I did no wounds to the Idol, he swung back and took out another Fiend.

I scored 1. I had to have the double turn, or it was game over, If I could get the turn I would be able to kill his Idol with the cannons and use the fiends to take out most of the unit of L pigs. I would also be in position to score 3 points. If I did not get the turn, it was going to be bad.

Watch for falling rocks:

 

Turn 2

I rolled a 5 for the turn!  He rolled a 6…

During his turn he took out my Fiends and the R unit of Rats. He also killed the Ratling gun with the Quick Silver Swords. ‘I had sent it through the Gnawhole last turn’. He also took out about half my Monks with the Idol on the R.  He collected 4 more points

At some point during the round I took out his center Idol. It was a mute point. I only scored 1 point this turn and it was looking like I would be tabled by the end of turn three. We calculated it up and there was no way for me to make up the points the score at the end of two was 2 to 10.

End of Round 2, End of the Masters:

 

AAR

This game was not played mistake free by me. And to be honest because of my opponents list and the Battleplan I had to play a perfect game to win.

Mobility was not the biggest issue this game. Just having to always go 2nd hurts on many of these missions. I had an opportunity to even things up in my shooting phase but Dimitri rolled out of this world.

It was a very good learning experience, those Idols are no joke.

Lessons learned:

  • Need fewer drops, getting out dropped 90% of the time makes it an uphill battle.
  • Layer the screens. Did a good job of this and it kept me alive several times.
  • Always stay more than 3 inches away from the front of the screen – did not do this in game 5
  • More movement and deep strike – this was one of the biggest problems. I can kill anything  from 24 inches out, but that back objective might as well be on the other side of the planet because I will never get to it.
  • Gnawholes are a bonus, don’t plan around them. They are easily negated.
  • 6 Stormfiends with More More are the best shooting unit that Skaven have..possibly in the game?
  • I need more flexibility and speed.
  • Monks surprised me on how good they preformed. ‘I can only dream of how the would have been had they not been changed”

 

List Adjustments and Thoughts

Bottom line is I need more speed or maneuverability. I need some way to reach out and take a point. The two option I see for this is to include a drill and Skitterleap. The drill is fine, but what to send with it?

I like the Idea of Skitterleap, I know it comes down to casting, sending a hero across the board is intriguing.

I think the list can win games at a GT, but if I get bad match ups I am in for a rough time.

Here is the current fix I would like to try:

Grey Seer (140) Skitterleap

Verminlord Warpseer (320) Supreme Manipulator, Suspicious Stone

Warlock Engineer (100)
– Lore of Warpvolt Galvanism : More-more-more Warp Power!

Warlock Engineer (100)
– Lore of Warpvolt Galvanism : More-more-more Warp Power!

UNITS
20 x Clanrats (120)
– Rusty Blade
20 x Clanrats (120)
– Rusty Blade
20 x Clanrats (120)
– Rusty Blade

6 x Stormfiends (520)

40 x Plague Monks (280)
– Woe-stave
– 2 x Icon of Pestilence
– 2 x Contagion Banner
– 2 x Doom Gongs
– 2 x Bale Chimes

Warplightning Cannon (180)

I loose quite a bit of fire power in the list. To add in Skitterleap and the Warpseer. But the Idea of sending A Warpseer flying around the board is appealing.

I could also drop down to One engineer and run a Bell instead of a Grey Seer on foot. It will add more Punch, however If my one Engineer is sniped the damage potential of all the shooting goes way down. I know there are many directions to go. I could also drop the Monks and add in a good bit of Clanrats.

Please comment if you have any ideas.

 

Painting

Here is where I had the biggest letdown of the weekend. I was not expecting to win any category, but was hoping to have a strong showing. However I did not place in the top 5 in any category. Discouraging to say the least. I brought some of my best models, Nagash had smooth transitions all over the place. The Necromancer I brought had some very nice detail work. As I looked at the judging and all the winners I have come to the conclusion that flash is were the money is. I am not taking anything away from the other contestants, I am just saying if you look at the top 5 for each category they all had a bunch of flash and wow. They ether had large conversions, or a dramatic paint scheme. I think if I want to do better with the paint judging I need to get more flash to my models. Why is it important, well the lighting in the room was not optimum, but the biggest issue is that the judges just do not have lots of time to judge each model. There were a ton of entries and each judge only had about 40 minutes to grade them all. With these factors it is no wondering why the big and flashy miniatures got all the love. I will note this and try to work to make my Models stand out from the crowd.

Here is a link to the scoring: Link

Unit: out of 24 entries I placed 15 or so.

Small Model: 28 entries I placed 21st

Large Model: 27 entries I placed 13th

Possibly in my mind my painting is better than it is, I just feel that I should have been a little higher up the list. Not salty, but this is going to motivate me to work harder.

Also in the army painting judging I did not place.

For a long time I have prided myself on painting, and usually have a solid showing when painting is graded. I will have to up my game.

 

The 2020 Master Season

I am looking forward to this season. I think it will be way harder to reach the Masters this year. I have my first Tournament next week at Atomic. It is currently filled with 20 contestants, many of whom were at ether the Maters or the Double Tournament. The week after that Tim will be running the first AOS tournament at Montags that I can ever remember. I may be able to make that one but not 100% sure yet. Dallas is the first GT of the year in May 2-3. I am probably not going to that. There is a small possibility, but if I had to make a decision today I would say no. I plan to go to Warzone Houston in September, Slambo, and Wargames in Austin. So as it sits right now I plan to go to 3 GTs this year. I am also trying to make at least one local tournament a month.

My personal goal at a GT this year is to win 4 games. I have gone 3/2, 3/2, and 2/3.

I am still searching for a list I can roll with. Right now I have this:

I like to call it 8th edition Death. I have built 40 Skeletons to go with this, but 80 Skeletons are re based, and the Grave Guard and Black Knights are also Re -based.

LIST:

Allegiance: Legion of Night
– Mortal Realm: Shyish

LEADERS
Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon (440)
– General
– Command Trait : Swift Form
– Vampiric Sword & Shield & Chalice
– Artefact : Ethereal Amulet
– Lore of the Vampires : Amethystine Pinions

Wight King with Baleful Tomb Blade (120)
– Steed
Necromancer (130)

– Artefact : Shard of Night
– Lore of the Deathmages : Overwhelming Dread

UNITS
5 x Black Knights (120)
10 x Grave Guard (140)
– Wight Blades & Crypt Shields
40 x Skeleton Warriors (280)
– Ancient Blades
40 x Skeleton Warriors (280)
– Ancient Blades
40 x Skeleton Warriors (280)
– Ancient Blades

BATTALIONS
Deathmarch (160)

More on this in the next post.

 

But I am thinking that Tzeech could be interesting. I am 100% ready to look at Seraphon as an option once the new book drops.  I will also take a look at High Elves. The bottom line is I will be Meta Chasing again, when I know the correct answer is to just buy and paint something tried and true. I am honestly hoping that my new death army can preform. The big issue with it will be painting it up to a very good standard.

I could just go with DK….

 

Travel, Accommodation and Food

The drive up was fine, We loaded the truck with coolers, kids, bags and models. The truck was full up. If I would have wanted to bring one of my bigger display boards I would have had to kick a kid out. Traffic was not bad, not great and we made good time.

My first stop in Dallas was to Dallas Vintage Toys  I can say I was a little surprised by the way the store was ran. The majority of their stock is in the backroom/warehouse and posted on their website. It is not on display. They do have lots of toys out front, but most of everything is in the back. I was given a tablet to look through and loaded the cart with the Joes I wanted to look at. The worker that was helping me was nice, but a little flustered. I wanted to look at many of the Joes I asked him to bring me multiple ones so I could pick the best. He was accommodating, but you could tell it was a bit of work for him. The other guy behind the register was a bit of a dick, like my presence was an annoyance. I asked if he could take a complete Zap out of the bag/case he was in, so I could inspect him for cracked thumbs. “well we usually don’t do that, but if you handle him gently I guess we can”. WTF it is a $180 toy, I am not dropping that $ without a close inspection of his thumbs. ‘they are notorious for breaking and cracking. but the big issue is that many on the market are repairs and not original.’ All in all I ended up dropping a couple of bills on a few Joes. I would like to go back, it will probably be a better experience next time, now that I know they are not a traditional retro toy store. I will be better prepared. I would not say it was a bad experience just not one that I am used to.

After Dallas VT we headed to Grapevine to check in. We made it over to Great Wolf Lodge a little before 5pm and were able to check in and get situated. We headed down to the indoor pool area for the kids to swim for a bit.

If you have never been to the Great Wolf it is a trip. The best way to sum it up is a Giant themed hotel/indoor outdoor waterpark/cruise ship/ event center. It is a nice place to bring your family, especially if you have smallish children.

A few things to know about Great Wolf:

  • Be prepared to drop $$
    • That being said you do get a lot of value for what you spend.
  • The in house food is not good
    • plan to go out, or do like us and bring a cooler full of food.
  • Kids running around all over the place
  • parking is ok, but you have to walk a good ways if you end up at the back of the lot.
  • Plenty of activities for the kids to do, but many will got extra$
  • I see it is as one of those things you do for a in state trip once every 3 or 4 years.

Here are my food reviews:

Friday night I had planned to going out somewhere sit down with the family. But by the time the kids were done swimming it was very late. Se we opted to do some fast food.

In-N_Out Burger

Saturday my games ran until after 7pm. My wife was out with the kids and picked me up some to go from the restaurant they were at.

Dragon House

 

Driving home after the event was rough, I think I got on the road about 6pm. I had not slept very well the last few nights so it was painful drive at times. Also I am old and never go out at night anymore so driving after dark kind of sucks now. The good thing was the the kids mostly slept on the way home, and I have a bunch of Warhammer audio books that I have not listens too. So I got to knock a few of them out.

 

What is next

I have a tournament next weekend. Hoping to run a new list. I am once again looking at playing Death, I just wish it had some sort of shooting for me. After that There is another local tournament at Montags, I may be going to that. not sure.

Hobby wise I am sort of just trying to finish building a few of the extra Skaven models I have. I re-based a tone of Death models. I also have a few pieces of terrain in the box that I would  like to get built and primed so I can put it on the table.

My year is about to get busy. I am back at school for my masters degree ‘only 2 classes reaming’, it is testing season at work, tournament season just started, kids have swim, soccer, and Catholic school is  in full swing. And World Of Tanks keeps taking all my extra time late at night. So as we move through the next couple of months it will be interesting to see what strikes my fancy and what direction I will be going with.

 

 

Thanks for reading. Y’all be good.

 

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