Smogcon 2012 SR Final - Retribution vs Circle (pics)

[Azuresun]

No, I didn't get to the final. But I had my netbook handy, and when I got asked "Are you recording this?", I thought it would be a good idea. If nothing else, it was a good way to ensure I had a good view of the final match. So, with no further ado, I give you:



Martin (Circle / E-Kreuger) vs Aaron (Retribution / Ossyan)

Though I hadn't bumped into Aaron, I had played Martin once before in a 35pt Steamroller with an unconventional Grayle list that contained one beast and a mass of Wolves of Orboros and solos. Such lists are usually the sign of either a noob or someone who knows what they're doing and since he'd scenario-d my Kromac list easily enough, he was firmly in the latter category.

Circle Orboros:
Kreuger the Stormlord
--Woldwarden
--Feral Warpwolf
--Feral Warpwolf
5x Tharn Wolf Riders
6x Druids of Orboros
--Druid Overseer
10x Tharn Bloodtrackers
Gallows Grove

Retribution of Scyrah:
Lord Arcanist Ossyan
--Discordia
--Phoenix
10x Mage Hunter Strikeforce
--Mage Hunter Commander
10x Dawnguard Invictors
--Officer & Standard
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt
Sylys Wyshnyllar, The Seeker
2x Arcanists
Destor Thane
Mage Hunter Assassin

Scenario is Overrun

Retribution goes first.


Setup:

The Bloodtrackers and Mage Hunters stare each other down from the Advance Deployment zone. On the Circle side, the Druids stand ready to screen Kreuger and the beasts with their clouds and countermagic. The Wolf Riders sit on the flank. On the Retribution side, the Invictors (in white) anchor one side, while the myrmidons and Aiyana + Holt hold the other.


Round 1:


Retribution:



Ossyan places Admonition on himself and Quicken on the Mage Hunters. The Thane and Strike Force sweep to the far side of the table, while the Arcanists Power Booster the myrmidons, and everything else runs forward.


Circle:



The Bloodtrackers choose the Invictors as their prey. Kreuger advances, and uses Telekinesis to move his Woldwarden forward, also casting Stormwall to blunt shooting next turn. The Woldwarden advances, and returns the favour on Kreuger. The Gallows Grove sinks into the earth, re-appearing deeper into the woods. The Druids move up and put up their Vortex / Countermagic defences. Everything else runs forward, the Bloodtrackers flanking on the opposite side to the Mage Hunters, and the Wolf Riders mill around at the back, ready to react to whatever the Retribution does next.


Round 2:


Retribution:



Using their enhanced speed, the Mage Hunters move into position, one running up to the Gallows Grove. Three of them fire at the Druids through the woods and clouds, and take out two of the blackclads. The Arcanist power-boosts the Phoenix, which moves into the trenches. The Invictors move into position, though a slight snafu with base placement blocks one of them off. Denied targets by Counter Magic, Ossyan camps focus.

[Azuresun]

Circle:



The Druid overseer opens hostilities with a Devouring that hits three Invictors and sucks one into the earth. The other Druids try Discordia fishing with force bolts, but it snags on the Destor and can’t be dragged in. The Bloodtrackers run again, several of them getting behind a wall uncomfortably close to the Invictors. The Feral moves up and warps armour.

The Woldwarden tramples forwards and uses Geomancy to throw a Lightning Storm over two Invictors, but to no effect. Kreuger moves into the scoring zone with a TK boost, and throws up Stormwall. The Wolf Riders run to the other flank, to engage some of the Mage Hunters. Lastly, the other feral (the Extreme one, hereafter referred to as the X-Feral) runs behind Kreuger, warping for armour.


Round 3:


Retribution:



Ossyan sticks his head out and zaps the Woldwarden with his chronophage cannon, also killing two Druids who were standing nearby, before transferring Admonition to Discordia. The Mage Hunters fight back, damaging the Gallows Grove and a Wolf Rider, and the Officer kills the Druid Overseer.

The Arcanist powerboosts the Phoenix. Discordia moves up and sprays through the woods, dealing more damage to the Gallows Grove and killing two Wolf Riders. Aiyana cast Kiss of Lyliss on the Woldwarden. The Invictors move out of the lightning and the officer uses his minifeat to grant them Snipe and counteract the Storm Wall. A volley of shots crash into the debuffed Woldwarden, which is destroyed in short order.


Circle:



It’s a bit too late for the poor Woldwarden, but the Bloodtrackers are ready to avenge it, fanning out and killing six Invictors, as well and dealing three damage to the officer. They keep their cool, however. The surviving Wolf Riders attack the Mage Hunters, two of them becoming dog food.

Kreuger kills two more Invictors with a Lightning Storm, and then feats, pushing everything back, before he TK’s himself back behind the wall (falling over due the relatively thick mats being used to mark zones). The X-Feral moves around, presumably hoping to nail a myrmidon or Ossyan next round, and warps armour. The other Feral moves up, and gets riled.


Round 4:


Retribution:



Admonition is upkept, but Quicken is dropped, and the Phoenix gets 2. Though movement is heavily hampered by Kreuger’s feat, the ranged options are still more than adequate, with no Storm Wall to contend with this turn. Perhaps it's just the temporal shennanigans Ossyan is doing, but history seems to be repeating as Aiyana lays a Kiss of Lyliss on the X-Feral, and Holt does some gunslinging for 4 points per attack. Ossyan pushes his way forward to move behind the trenchworks, uses his feat, and delivers an amazing 15 damage with a shot at the same target. The Phoenix takes a shot, and finishes the X-Feral. Brutal!

The surviving Invictors shoot the remaining warpwolf for a few points. The Mage Hunters continue their side-show with the Wolf Riders, their combined melee attacks doing two points each to two riders. The Thane darts between the myrmidons to hit the Feral twice with his Multifiring lance, for 6 damage. The Assassin moved up, looking for an angle and Sylys & the Arcanist manouvered around Ossyan. Discordia rather ruthlessly sprayed a Mage Hunter, killing them and a Wof Rider, before using Kinetic Field.

[Azuresun]

Circle:



I’m not sure what happened here. Either Martin had anticipated a transfer that wasn’t needed or moved to activations before leaching under the pressure of a tournament final, but in either case, excess Fury was left on the table. (If anyone who knows is reading this, go ahead and correct me). The Feral duly frenzies and eats a Bloodtracker. The remaining Bloodtrackers move round, and attack anything in sight. Aaron temporarily forgets the effects of Gravity Well, but is reminded by the overseeing Press Ganger (on the grounds that it’s an effect that must happen), which will prove quite significant in a bit. When the dust clears, an Arcanist and two more Invictors are shish-kebobed & Sylys has taken 4 damage, but the crates save the Invictor officer and Ossyan is missed.

Circle are losing the attrition game quite badly, so it seems it’s now or never. Conditions are hardly optimal for a ranged assassination, but there isn’t likely to be a turn after this one. With a battle cry of “Go big or go home!”, Martin flies Kreuger forwards, and he connects with the first lightning bolt on Ossyan. With the damage lost to Gravity Well, the odds are not in his favour, but the first attack connects. Could he pull it off?

3 damage
4 damage
(drumroll)
0 damage

Sadly, no. The Wolf Riders eat three more Mage Hunters, but it’s all over barring a miracle.


Round 5

Retribution:



Ossyan shoots a fury-less Kreuger for 7 points and -2 Defence. Aiyana applies the Kiss in the name of total overkill, then Holt finishes the job. (A few minutes later, Vayl takes out Damiano in the struggle for third place.)

Ladies and gentleman, we have our first Smogcon champion! It was quite a fight, and I hope I've done it justice. It'd be great if one of the players could pop their head in and give us some behind-the-scenes insight.

I'll have some more Smogcon material once I've written stuff up and sorted pictures out.

[PG_Vynde]

Great write up, and looks like a good game.

Only issue i have is that both of their armies are pretty much entirely unpainted

[ChristianAas]

Great report and a cool final.

But... why isn't anything painted?

[RoninXiC]

Ret #1 and mercs #4
Awesome!

Thanks for the report. Was very enjoyable to read it.

[moob]

Nice report. Surprising that Storm Wall did not rule the game without Ravyn to juggle snipe around.

[Rez]

Im more surprised the Bloodtrackers were hanging off to the side of the battle for so long. They really make a mess of Retribution, having them take out the Invictors early could have been a tipping point for the attrition battle. But oh well, always a shame to see Circle lose, especially in a final. Good report, cheers for posting. The pictures make it a lot easier to follow to.

But I have to echo everyone else here, booo for no painted models!

[Kenton]

Interesting report there!

It's tragic that there are no painted models, barely even any undercoat! What happened there?

[Murkhadh]

WHY does the painting question keep coming up? PP has no requirement for painting outside of hard core so that's the answer.

This is a great battle report and two players did a really good job of representing the factions they played and played a really great game. Cheers to each of them. Try congratulating them instead of ragging on them about painting. Its disrespectful to say the least. If you want to rag on people for not painting, go play 40k, it has no place in warmachine/hordes.

Also Azuresun, great battle report, thanks for putting this up with pictures, it gives a great feel for how the game went down.

[ChristianAas]

WHY does the painting question keep coming up? PP has no requirement for painting outside of hard core so that's the answer.

This is a great battle report and two players did a really good job of representing the factions they played and played a really great game. Cheers to each of them. Try congratulating them instead of ragging on them about painting. Its disrespectful to say the least. If you want to rag on people for not painting, go play 40k, it has no place in warmachine/hordes.

Also Azuresun, great battle report, thanks for putting this up with pictures, it gives a great feel for how the game went down.

I believe everyone that commented on the painting also gave thanks for the battle report.

I appreciated the rapport. But I would have appreciated it even more if the miniatures were painted.

[Jamie P]

Aaron is a former Cryx player and only recently switched to Retribution. He had all of his Cryx painted but has had no time to paint his Ret. Martyn also only recently re-joined the game about 2 months ago after selling off his entire collection months before.

Give these guys a break folks

[The Buoyancy of Water]

I came over to have a nosey after finishing my game, and due to army placement I actually thought it was a radial scenario!

Played Martin in my very first tourney game this weekend, very nice guy! I was so close to getting him too

Chatted to Aaron afterwards too to congratulate him. Didn't get a chance to play him over the weekend sadly.

Cheers,
Dave

[SevenSins]

very nice rep, thanks for sharing

(I was going to comment something concerning pigmentation but it seems to have been covered )

[Marchant06]

Aside from all the painting remarks, thanks for the Report!
I felt bad for the circle player, but well done on choosing a target and getting ride of it. sounds pretty text-book to me.