Wednesday 25 February 2015

Battlecrying

Oh the humanity. I yet again wallow around in the midfield standings of an event, having only clocked 2 wins and 2 losses at the recent one-dayer at Battlecry. Yet, I'm not as frustrated with myself as I may have been previously, and part of that is identifying where things went wrong (the greater part was actually having pretty decent games, even when I was busy sabotaging myself or getting my shit pushed in). A series of hurdles and handicaps tripped me up leading up to and during the day, and while it might not be entertaining reading the reflections of a middle-road drop out, that's all I got. Go here if you want to read accounts of someone who plays proficiently and who podiums.

So my first issue; I scuttled myself in list creation. Instead of working on the Skorne pairing I have harped about previously, I worked myself in to a bit of a confused position where I wanted to try out an eXerxis list that I had been mulling over, and then the announcement was made to make the painting comp based off a single warbeast/jack. so I wanted to parade around my freshly painted Mammoth.

This meant I had backed myself into a bit of a corner; I had one list I was experimenting with, with another list that was built around a Gargantuan, that some how ended up being my general drop due to some malfunction in my thinking. Taking the Mammoth, I tried to build a shooty-bricky pXerxis list, adding to the durability of the mammoth with defensive buffs, and bringing the guns to deal with multiple troops with AOEs and what not. Its a list that has some legs, but there were instances where it got completely rolled, and I don't think the eXerxis list would have faired much better either. Yet I still ended up with a bit of a dud pairing going into Battlecry, all because of experimenting and wanting to win a painting comp.

At least I got the painting prize ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

oh mammoth <3

The games I lost at Battlecry were both with pXerxis. First, I had to grind through the eGaspy gauntlet. things pretty much went as expected, with me bricking up out of fear of all the weapon-masters heading my way, while Peter hunter danced gaspy around the board claiming CPs. I had fun with my first ever swipe though, claiming something like 7 Bane Knights before gaspy feated them all back and turned the mammoth into a red smear. 

thug

I brought a knife to a gun fight, and paid for it. ELich is still the bees knees, surprise surprise.

My other loss I will attribute to two big mistakes I made; 1) pushing my Raider too far forward and losing him trivially, and 2) herpa-derping my Mammoth into a charge it never had. If I had done either of those things differently, the game would be a totally different mess. As it was, my opponent Chris capitalized masterfully on my mistakes and managed to get a bead onto Xerxis, popping him with two weapon master shots. Well done sir.

gangs

But something I wasn't expecting came out of the experimentation; I began looking at my eXerxis list to replace my pXerxis list, and pair with Mordikaar. Part of this is the rose-tinted glow I got winning the games I did with him. Another part of that is how I've been discussing and building the list with him for a couple of weeks now, and I feel things are now in a space where I can field him confidently.

This also excites me as my opinion on this guy has changed yet again, from initially being excited, to being totally ambivalent and actually quite bummed out about to the guy, to now feeling again he has a decent game. eXerxis is warlock I feel I am fleshing out well, and its through collusion with friends and my own design, not just conforming to some net-list.

The list as it stands looks like this:
Xerxis, Fury of Halaak 
- Molik Karn 
- Archidon 
- Cyclops Brute 
- Cyclops Brute
- Cyclops Brute 
- Cyclops Shaman 

Extoller Soulward 
Mortitheurge Willbreaker 
Mortitheurge Willbreaker 
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor 
Tyrant Rhadeim 

Min Paingiver Beast Handlers 
Min Paingiver Beast Handlers 

The idea is a to have a mobile battlegroup that darts in and out, chipping away at key pieces till its time to go all in on the feat. I keep saying that I got the idea for this after watching people play Vayl, so the idea was to replicate a part of that plan. It also is my answer to the Bradigus question. It so happens that the eXerxis games at battle cry were against these two warlocks, and the list performed well. Against Brad, it was a matter of knocking out stones and Woldwatchers, till Molik drew a bead on Bradigus. Against Vayl, the key moment for me was when I managed to get off a Stranglehold against a threatening Angelius, allowing me to comfortably setup my board position from that point forward. Yo-yoing beasts around the board is fun, and I feel the list is in a solid space at the moment. There will need to be more practice, but the list is so damn fun to wrap my head around. Mordikaar also feels like a nice drop to off-set eXerxis' weaknesses, where he can cover the cryx/troop spam scenarios. I initially thought eXerxis wouldn't have the punch needed to break armour, but my thoughts on that are changing now.

Coming out of Battlecry, I definitely didn't have the outcome I was hoping for. But I'm pretty excited moving forward with what I've learnt over the last couple of weeks. 

Before signing off, big ups to Daryl P for putting on Battlecry and organising things so 25 man-children could spend a Sunday pushing dollies about. Good fucking show champ. Also congrats to Luke Brimblecombe, Nikola Jaksic, and David Stent for coming first, second and third respectively. 


2 comments:

  1. Coming out of the tournament with the next level of thinking to move your game forward is a solid result. Plus that Mammoth looked absolutely spectacular!

    Now let's see if you change your mind on the list pairing before Sunday :)

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    1. Don't you know it, Chas has been suggesting list amendments that make a heap of sense but I'm torn because I don't know if I'll get to test it before Sunday, and arrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh.

      CCCHHHHAAAAASSSSSSS *fist shaking*

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