Shanghai Team Open bat-reps from a random Circle player
Jun 10, 2018 13:37:51 GMT
kuririnad and macdaddy like this
Post by newangel on Jun 10, 2018 13:37:51 GMT
This weekend we had one of the largest Warmahordes events here in China – The STO (Shanghai Team Open). It’s a WTC style team event (5-man teams with 4 rounds), so a group of buddies and I put together a team to take part and hopefully win some glory. Overall 10 teams showed up from different parts of China which meant we really got to test ourselves into lots of different metas. We had some initial trouble filling out our final spot but it came together and we ended up with what I think was a pretty balanced team – Circle (myself – Wurmwood/Bradigus), Minions (Jaga-Jaga/Barnabus1), Mercenaries (Ossrum/Shae), Grymkin (Heretic/Dreamer) and Khador (Butcher3/Old Witch2). I’ll save the details and get straight into it from my perspective and let my teammates decide whether or not to post their own battle reports.
Wurmwood and Cassius (Bones)
-Woldwarden
-Woldwarden
-Woldwarden
-Megalith
-Woldwyrd
-Woldwyrd
Stoneshaper
Stoneshaper
Stoneshaper
Wayfarer
Wayfarer
Shifting Stones
Shifting Stones
Sentry Stone
Sentry Stone
Bradigus (Bones)
-Wold Guardian
-Wold Guardian
-Woldwatcher
-Woldwatcher
-Woldwatcher
-Woldwatcher
-Woldwight
-Woldwight
-Woldwight
-Woldwight
-Woldwight
Stoneshaper
Stoneshaper
Stoneshaper
Wayfarer
Wayfarer
Shifting Stones
Shifting Stones
Round 1
So, we drew a team I didn’t know (and sadly don’t remember the name of). I get the Cryx match and see 9 Slayers in there so Bradigus gets thrown down. My opponent does the expected and drops his Skarre1 Dark Host list (riders, warriors, knights a BE and 4 Stalkers). I win the roll off and go first taking up a nice amount of board space but respecting the threat of his Stalkers. My opponent pretty much runs up but seems to forget about my feat and I see a pretty good opening. My turn 2 rolls around and I decide this is feat turn. I manage to remove a Stalker, the BE and 2 cavalry with my heavies while getting some Woldwatchers in on the Bane warriors and removing them from play. Retaliation from him is actually fairly minor as the forests were a serious inconvenience for my opponent – He could see my armour 21 lights but not the actual models he wanted to kill behind them. His feated models do some work but no where near as much as he needed to (some poor dice and a bit of poor target priority from him). After both feats are blown I continue remove his infantry, stalkers die to Woldwights and I slowly grind out a scenario win.
The team also did great and we won the round 4-1.
Round 2
This time we get Team Guangzhou and I get put into Trolls. I have very little experience vs them so decide to play Bradigus again for the hitting power and my opponent drops Kolgrima (SoTN – Champions, 2x Bears, 2x min Raiders and minor Battlegroup with key solos). I play cautiously, not wanting to overextend and instead go for easy CP’s while just contesting his flag and zone with Wayfarers. A key error sees me losing a Woldwight to an ambushing unit of bears since I can’t do math (11+3 is not 13), but overall this game turns into giant mess in the middle. Attrition evens out a little when a Woldwight gets into my opponent’s champions doing tremendous damage and setting 4 on fire who then die the following turn, but it’s still way too close to say I had an advantage. When we get to turn 7 with about 5 minutes between us on the clock the cautious play earlier pays off. I’m just ahead enough on CP’s that he can’t catch up, and since I’m going second I nail the win with 9CP’s to 8. Hard to describe, but an absolutely brutal game. This is a matchup I absolutely needed more practice into and a couple of changes to my Brad list would really help it out.
The team once again nails it and we win the round 4-1.
Round 3
Possibly the hardest matchup of the tournament. We get put into Team Shanghai – the guys that went to the WTC with us last year and ranked way above our crappy team (24th if memory serves?). These guys were here to win the event and they have the players and skill to do it! Fortunately, we all know each other well which made the games a lot more friendly and relaxed, though we knew we were at a disadvantage.
I take Nemo3 (double BE, 2x Min lances, 6 Fireflies), drop Wurmwood and off to the electric races we go. I win first and take it getting up the table as fast as I could but staying out of threat of the double BE’s. My opponent comes up respecting the threat range of my multiple Strangleholds. My turn 2 I get some damage out there with more strangleholds and feating to get more board space. In a disastrous play from my opponent he then decides to contest both zones with his BE’s while holding his fireflies back. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth on my turn 3 I send in 2 Wardens easily removing both of the Battle Engines (a manakin and a wall stopped pushbacks). Shooting and additional strangleholds put more damage on the fireflies and Stormlances. Next turn my opponent feats and I lose 2 Wardens, 1 gets beat up badly, some solos dies and a Woldwyrd is left on life support. Those power 12’s hurt! We grind it out for an additional round with me focusing on the Storm lances since without the feat the Fireflies aren’t anywhere near as worrying. My battered Wyrd is left alive as a failed impact attack from the last Storm Lance on that flank missed a manakin that was blocking the charge (better lucky than good), but I’m all out of solos. My opponent comes forward, moves Nemo3 within 10 inches of my battered Woldwyrd and gives a Strength bump to a Firefly who then removes my last Woldwarden. Since Nemo had Magnetic Hold up I did take a purgation shot that did 2 damage through focus. Now it’s my turn and I’m torn. I feel I can possibly assassinate with my single aiming Wyrd but I’m not certain with him camping 3. I then measure out to my other Wyrd and he’s also within 17”and can get LoS. I go for it and roll 6,6,6,5 for damage nailing him with my first shot. As I said, better lucky than good!
Round 4
At this point there were only 2 undefeated teams left so we knew who we were going to face. This was also a team from our local meta which meant we all knew each other’s lists and weaknesses.
This was one of those games where I could see exactly how it was going to end. With his long-range shooting and the melee punch from the sentinels backing it up there was nothing I would have been able to do to stop an inevitable scenario victory. Ignoring forests sucks for Wurmwood! Fortunately, the assassination came together and it worked out.
Unfortunately, the team did a little less well and only 1 other player won their game so we ended 2-3. After such a high from the first day’s victories we all felt a little disappointed, but in retrospect when we first committed to this we didn’t actually intend to win the whole thing – It was just a bunch of guys playing a few competitive games and do the best we could. Coming in 2nd was an amazing achievement for us all and I’m proud of how well we did. A second achievement for me was getting best in faction (the only Circle player to win all his games). There was 1 other player I knew there who has a reputation as a bit of a beast so just a bit of personal glory to bask in.
As an aside our Minion player was absolutely rocking it with Jaga-jaga (our only other player to win all his games). I did get to watch one of his games and it was mind blowing. Swamp Horrors with her are ferocious and deserve a huge amount of respect.
So, a bit of a long-winded report with no pictures to make it entertaining (I’m really not very good at this kind of thing), but I figured I would share regardless. It’s been an amazing weekend and I can’t wait to for the next big event we have here in a few months – The China Team Championship. I’ll do my best to write up those reports with pictures if possible.
Hope you enjoyed the long read!
