The Necrotechs Workshop LXIII – First Tournament 2019

I’ve been riding the Scaverous train for a long while now, seven months, as far as I can remember. Its had ups and downs, and I have had a lot of fun using him and getting used to the list. This tournament I once again brought Scaverous and Gaspy 3 just to make sure that I never encountered guns. It was the Third of the Brawltimore Series that we run down here every year, and this one went the distance: 20 players, 5 rounds. Lets get to the reports!

Brawltimore #3

To come right out and get to it – I’d not played a single game of Warmachine since my last, fairly spectacular flame out at the last Brawltimore. Going 0-3 and playing at the last table was a pretty humbling experience, and it really made me consider what I was doing with the Scaverous list and the pair. This time, knowing I have to go to the tournaments for Brawltimore because they have to use my computer, I had resolved to bring a little different setup. Unfortunately, I did not. Instead, I lost track of time playing video games and getting ready for Christmas that I instead packed up nearly the same list for Scaverous and traded out Skarre 3 for Asphyxious 3 to keep my opponents honest. The lists are below.

Its this pair that I went into the largest tournament of the season so far with. I wasn’t to excited to play, but I hoped that would pass as I got deeper into the tournament.

Round 1

Scenario: Pit II
Opposing Faction: Legion
Record: 0-0
Opponents Lists:

I was very excited to get this match up! I had been poking at Scaverous trying to get him to have a solid Primal Terrors match up, because the pair suffers into it, and I was finally able to get the match up after months. I’d suffered into it at Lock and Load and again at Nova Open, so I was hoping that we’d have a different result here. Knowing that both his lists were Primal Terrors made it even better!

I choose, to no ones surprise, Scaverous, and he chose Kallus 2. He won the roll off, going first, and I picked the side with the house with which to hide Scaverous behind so that he wouldn’t get charged by Chosen.

During the last tournament, I ended up letting the Kraken go and do its own thing throughout the games. This time, I wanted to make sure that the damned thing got its Gang Fighter bonus, which meant that I was going to be using the Blood Gorgers as body blockers and enablers for the giant beast. This was the first game I remembered to do that correctly. I placed the Smogs in the center with Scaverous and the Dirge Seers in order to cover as much of the center of the board as I could. I placed the Kraken and the Bloodgorgers on my right opposite a unit of Chosen and a Hellmouth. I faded hard on the right, leaving only my Black Ogrun. I realized too late as I was deploying that this was going to be a problem. I hoped that I would be able to collapse the flank with the Gorgers and Kraken, and then roll sideways. It was a plan, at least.

Sadly, at least to me, I left a hole around the Kraken that was a bit larger than the Raek. That Raek then jumped into the hole and blocked the way for the Kraken to make any forward progress, which was an extreme shame as I had a nice spot that the Kraken could land that would kill four Chosen! It was going to be a glorious turn and I was going to be able to enact my plan! That stupid Raek, though, survived vengeance with but a few boxes left on a pretty soft body. I didn’t really have a ton of models to go after it that wouldn’t box the Kraken in, though. My best bet was going to be Axiara. If she killed the thing – Mat 8, P+S 13 weaponmaster charge needing 8 damage at dice -1 – she could turn into a ghost and be out of the way. Sadly, she would do no such thing. Instead, she missed her charge attack, though she followed up with a Crit Horns attack, leaving the Raek knocked down. She repositioned 3″ out of the way, but it was too late. I didn’t have enough around to kill the Raek, the Bloodgorgers needed to move out of the way, and everything went south from here.

Scaverous, In a precarious position because the Chosen were supposed to be dead, was left flapping in the wind. He was charged the next round by four Battle Lusted Chosen and died a quick, brutal death, top of three.

It was a good game, and I really think that it could have been even better had there not been an immortal Raek in the way of the kraken. I could easily have tightened up the ranks and prevented a landing spot, but instead, I left a hole. Lesson learned.

Round 2

Scenario: Recon II
Opposing Faction: Cryx
Record: 0-1
Opponents Lists:

I absolutely love playing against this next opponent. He’s always a class act, and though we play the same factions, our games are fun none the less. I was pretty pleased with my list selection, because I knew the problem that I had with Slayers was taking down a bunch of tough, medium based infantry that I can’t trample over. In this case, exacerbated by the fact that I have a Kraken who will sit behind the wall of meat, hopefully picking off slayers for a turn or three until I get a solid advantage and am able to commit strongly. He won the roll for first turn, and took the side that allowed him unfettered access to all my models, once everything was engaged.

I deployed the Kraken behind a cloud of Bloodgorgers again, putting the smogs and the Black Ogrun to the left while everyone else went right. I was hoping to take the brunt of the damage on the generally worthless Bloodgorgers and get a Gang Fighter or Two off before they exploded.

Turn 2, I forgot to allocate focus to the Kraken who was going to charge into and take down two slayers from his 14″ away, trying to start the piece trading in a positive manner. Instead, I didn’t kill either of the Slayers with the Kraken (at dice +2), or really do any significant damage to either of them. While the plan generally worked, It wasn’t enough. The Kraken, the Ironmongers, and the Black Ogrun all failed to punch through on any of the jacks on the turn I went all in, enabling the Slayers to push through my army and take down the Kraken. It was enough. I was sad that I wasn’t able to get my hands on Asphyxious, including leaving the arc node out of control rang at the end of a turn.

I went for an all-in assassination on Asphyxious that I just couldn’t think my way out of. Even with Telekinesis, I wasn’t able to peel out the Ripjaw and Slayer blocking the way for my Black Ogrun and my Smog Belchers to get the line they needed on the ol‘ Lich Lord. It was a puzzle I just couldn’t unpuz.

My opponent swears it was dice on my end that pulled the game out from under me, but I’m fairly convinced it wasn’t as good as a matchup as I thought, and one that I need to play pretty cleverly or I’ll lose. I can’t forget to allocate focus, and I need to protect the Kraken better or this will happen every time. That said, If I could get a bunch more games against it, I think I can hone my game up enough. Its a fun match, and I’d do it again, much like the Primal Terrors.

Round 3

Scenario: Invasion
Opposing Faction: Convergence Of Cyriss
Record: 0-2
Opponents Lists:

Convergence isn’t a faction I fight against much, so I don’t have a great set of experiences upon which to draw for pairings. I took a look here and decided that if he was going to drop Lucant, I wanted to be able to consume all the souls, and if he dropped Axis, with careful play I would be able to keep the Kraken alive long enough to take down anything that could threaten it. Scaverous it was again. He picked Lucant, I expect to be able to use the TEP’s. Honestly, thinking about it afterward, I’m pretty sure Gaspy 3 is just the better of the lists to drop here. Anyway. I won the roll to go first and shoved everything up into the center of the board real tight, avoiding the big acid pit on the left.

He maneuvered into position, keeping all of the Inverters clustered together to prevent me from taking them out individually, as well as screening most of his army with shield guards. I wasn’t going to get a lot of work done with my guns this round. I would have to rely on spells and the Kraken. Fair enough.

The TEPS came up, me being unable to harass them enough to stay back, and sprayed down the vast majority of the Bloodgorgers as well as a pair of Smogs and Axiara. I wasn’t terribly pleased, but what was I going to do.

Well, what I was going to do was maneuver a way to take out both TEP’s and in an Inverter! I was able to remove, through Melee attacks, my feat and a number of Spells, a set of Servitors who were preventing the TEPs from being TK’s forward, and pulled them backward and towards my Black Ogrun Boarding Party. Three of them charged, dropping one of the TEPs, which freed my Kraken to be able to charge, take down the other TEP and also catch an Invertor in my wrath, pulling it off the board. This quickly leads to a roll-up situation where I had taken off more from the board than my opponent could really afford, and I was becoming immune to his army. I picked off a second inverter, and I was pretty sure that the Kraken was going to be able to run the table. As a last-ditch plan, Axis was sent in, to either spike high and kill the Kraken or die in the attempt. He graciously, for me, did the latter, and I managed to get my second win in 7 games. Yay!

Round 4

Scenario: Mirage
Opposing Faction: Crucible Guard
Record: 1-2
Opponents Lists:

Looking over the lists, I was concerned with both armies having Rocketmen, which is a real pain. I did think, however, that Scaverous has the better reach, and would be able to pick out the parts that I wanted to kill the easiest of the two lists, so I dropped him. The opponent picked Gearhart, which is a solid drop into either list.

I won the roll to go first, a great boon against a shooting based army, and correctly deployed my Bloodgorgers for the fourth game in a row. Nice little touch there! I’ve gotten pretty solid at getting the Smogs and Boarding Party to work together, so I pushed them to a flank, again. Unfortunately for me, The proper deployment and turn 1 run with the Gorgers meant that they were well within the hail of rockets that the Vulcan was going to toss at them. Being late, I forgot their vengeance for the first time in a long time, and it made me a bit sad. However, as you can see in the pic below, I had a plan.

Two of the Bloodgorgers who’d survived were within range of a few of the front line CGI if I used a TK or two. Seemed like a good plan to me, so I started attempting to dismantle the CGI as best as I possibly could. Three Smog shots, the Kraken, a Feast of Worms, and a trio of Bloodgorgers later, and I had decimated the unit. Three were left, including the standard bearerm and I’d given up an Arc Node and three Gorgers. A fair trade, if you ask me, for not getting shot under Gearharts Feat. Thankfully, this game didn’t have a real chance to develop further. He advanced solidly, placing himself into good positions with the Rocketmen and the Vulcan to push into my army with little I could do about it. He didn’t, however, move Gearheart out of range of my assassination. With the 4 souls, I had gathered from the CGI, I was able to overpower his power field, and assassinate him with a combination of Spells from Scaverous and shots from the Kraken.

Round 5 – Final Round

Scenario: Standoff
Opposing Faction: Circle
Record: 2-2
Opponents Lists:

This last game of the night started pretty late, and I wasn’t as alert as I’d been at the start of the day. None the less, I played Scaverous because he had plenty of souls to reap in both lists, and I had a Kraken who wouldn’t be pushed by Kreuger 2. I’m really bad at reading lists and picking the right matchup. He played Grayle, which was a good call – we were all just going to slaughter each other until the end of time. I won the roll to go first, again and took up a solid position in the center of the board. I left the right-hand side a bit weaker than I should have, to be honest. And I made a huge error in judgment turn 1. I was so fixated on pulling the Lord of the Feast off the board, that I missed an opportunity to blow up most of the Bloodtrackers and take their souls with Feast of Worms. Instead, I failed to kill the Lord of the Feast, sacrificed an arc node, and he was healed to full just a turn later. It was a masterstroke of stupidity.

He capitalized well on that foolishness, taking out my arc node and setting up both ravager units to be able to get into my lines and overtake through a huge swath of them. Thankfully, my counter-attack on turn 2 enabled me to scoop up 7 souls, making it so that I could think about the assassination. The only problem was that I needed to TK my own arc node because I had left him too far out. I needed to use Guidance from the Dirge Seers, as well, and there was such a narrow margin to fit the Arc node between models that I needed to be able to remove a few in order to even pull it off. Sadly, clearing this lane lead to me not having enough resources to push through and actually kill Grayle, with his four transfers. I just ran out of steam and finished the day 2-3.

Scaverous has been a blast, especially in Slaughter Fleet, I think its time for me to take a bit of a breather from it while I paint a number of the models for the list. I am really, really tired of not being able to hit like a thousand tons of metal, and I think I am either going to bring Scaverous into Dark Host, or pull out Deneghra 1 again. It has been way, way too long.

I’ve also decided that I am much, much better at playing other peoples lists. I’m not really that great at locating, exploiting and discovering synergies and secrets. I am an execution based player, and I really want to get back to that. I’ll be back next month – if not sooner, with another Cryx Article, likely another Tournament report.

These battle reports, if I was to do them as I really want to, take so long to write. I apologize for the shortened form, and hope they are still worth reading!

Until next time! 

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