I had two lists for this tournament, but played only one.
[Theme] Masters of War
Lord Tyrant Hexeris
- Agonizer [6]
- Archidon [10]
- Tiberion [22]
- Titan Gladiator [15]
Feralgeist [2]
Cataphract Cetrati (max) [18] + Tyrant Vorkesh [0(6)]
Legends of Halaak [8]
Paingiver Beast Handlers (min) [5]
Praetorian Swordsmen (max) [13] + Praetorian Swordsman Officer & Standard [4]
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer [0(6)]
First game was against Circle of Orboros, Krueger1.
Primaled Ghetorix fails to take out Tiberion, which results in a dead Ghetorix. Bloodtrackers had Legends of Halaak as their prey target, and I tried to move them to other side of the board. This was when I learned about the new minifeat that allows to pick a new Prey target. Oh well. At least Bloodtrackers were rolling exceptionally low damage rolls against them.
Hexeris' feat gave me, what, two or three extra kills in this game. So yay for that. I can already give a spoiler: they were the only kills I got with Dark Dominion during whole tournament.
Then Primaled Warpwolf Stalker destroyed Tiberion and lowered Titan Gladiator down to one hit box remaining. Krueger shot that one off. I was down to Archidon in my heavy warbeast department, and it was somewhere completely off.
I had gained a good lead in scenario game, but losing both serious heavies might change that.
Time started to be short for both players, which resulted in a panicking Krueger flying to my rectangular zone. But he had Def 17 - what was I to do?
I tried to snatch the last remaining control point, but just couldn't clear the circular zone on right. And over-excited I had also brought Archidon to full Fury.
Loki took off Agonizer, so Hexeris had no transfer targets. Krueger charges in and attempts to assassinate Hexeris, but fails to do so. Hexeris had cast Parasite on Krueger, and it was this +1 ARM that saved Hexeris. Shortly after opponent ran out of clock.
A close victory for Hexeris. But little did I know, yet...
Second game was against Grymkin.
It was a good game against The Heretic.
I saw an opportunity to score two scenario points, but this relied on hitting a MAT 8 attack against DEF 13. Failed, of course. So that was only one point for me.
My single greatest mistake was bringing a shield-walled unit of Cetrati within charge range of Skin & Moans. They were obliterated, and I didn't even get the scenario point.
Tiberion survived like a champ against Cage Rattler with Fury, and against another Cage Rattler that had no Fury. Just for the sake of it, when last Cage Rattler died Feralgeist jumped in.
I lost my lead of 3 control points in one round, and that decided the game for me. I only could try to grind up some control points for tiebreakers. But Archidon failed to repeat it's performance, and did next to no damage to enemy objective.
Hexeris stood right next to Skin & Moans full on corpses, and had no Fury.
This was something even Hexeris could not endure. Lost.
Third game was against Circle of Orboros, and again against Krueger1.
I almost lost on top of 2A. Storm Raptor is a horrifying assassination tool. Saving grace here was Tiberion's Immovable Object. Krueger attempted to throw Tiberion to Hexeris with a Tornado. Otherwise those resources could have gone to killing Hexeris.
My warcaster almost died to electro leaps. And lastly Lord of the Feast threw it's bird at something, and Tiberion used shield guard. But thanks to new and improved reach of 2", Lord was easily within range of Hexeris. But miraculously Hexeris survived - with three hit boxes to boot!
This was devastating for Circle player, and he lined every warbeast at his disposal to protect Krueger.
However, thanks to Krueger's feat and such, I could only destroy two Warpwolves and Storm Raptor, and my warcaster was at two hit boxes remaining - he had cut himself to gain one fury point.
I was prepared to lose now. Tiberion was at full Fury, so was not an eligible transfer target. Archidon died, but at least gave two extra fury points for Hexeris by doing so.
Primaled Shadowhorn Satyr did it's shenanigans and came to finish off Hexeris.
This cost me Titan Gladiator, but - how can it be? Hexeris was alive.
Had Combo-Smite brought Gorax to Krueger, I would have attempted to kill him. But Gorax moved only half an inch, which was not enough to knock Circle warlock over. So I just killed the Shadowhorn Satyr and Warpwolf Stalker.
I thought I was safe, but then Krueger flies closer and casts a Tornado at Hexeris. It hits and slams Hexeris to wall, meaning POW 13 + 4d6 damage roll or something like that.
I only had Agonizer as transfer target. Opponent hoped high enough damage roll that overspill damage would kill Hexeris, but it left him standing with one hit box remaining.
I'd prefer winning where it would feel like I played well, but I have to say game was hilariously exciting. Surviving against such odds has a certain tingling sensation in it, but really. Hexeris got lucky big time here.
Fourth game was... against Circle of Orboros. I got to play against Kaya3. And what a terrifying game it was.
I had my moment on the right sided rectangular zone, where I killed a griffon or two. Praetorian Swordsmen cleared the flag scoring blackclad. But other than that, nothing else worked - and opponent had excessively high damage rolls against Tiberion. Who died.
Also, against Titan Gladiator. Who died.
Only Cataphract Cetrati were performing well - they were passing Tough roll in such a way that it probably made the average from all of these game about right. I had not been passing those rolls earlier, but here I passed more than I failed.
But hey, with only an Agonizer I was facing five heavy warbeasts. I had pretty much given up here, and left Hexeris quite there in the open. Not exactly suicidal, but not trying to protect himself either.
Kaya cleared any free strikes that a nearby Gnarlhorn Satyr would've had to take. Then Circle filled up the Synergy chain, and Gnarlhorn Satyr launched itself against Hexeris, who only had Agonizer for transfers.
Those rolls, though.
The goat missed pretty much every attack. One attack wrecked Agonizer's spirit. Another attack Hexeris took in. Hexeris had at least seven damage boxes left after MAT 9, P+S 19 or something like that Satyr had had it's moment with him. And Kaya was withing charge range of Hexeris.
Legends of Halaak combo-smited Gnarlhorn away so it wouldn't get a free strike against Hexeris. The Legend with Naginata dealt some 10 points of damage to Kaya, which were transfered away.
Then Hexeris charges in and kills Kaya.
Just.
What.
Is.
This.
And I even placed third in the tournament.
Personally, this has to be the most absurd tournament I have ever attended when it comes to probabilities.
Or maybe this was my Skorne collection's way of saying: "Please play more with us!"
