Beiträge von dasambi

  • Übung macht weniger schlecht: Right in the Nuts

    11.08. - Saving the nuts

    We check out of the hotel and go for breakfast. And again, the pairings are up in the middle of my first coffee.

    A short walk to the venue, a quick morning talk from Ben, asking us carnivors to keep our greedy claws off of the veggie food and we are off to the tables.


    Round 4 vs Sweden Utgard on Wolves at our Heels


    We are paired into Antons team. Our pairing matrix looks quite ok, but for some reason my team is starting to dislike Brinebloods.

    I get Jacob running infernals and pick Ragemonger again.

    He surprises me by choosing Omodamos. Apparently, he has had bad experiences into Ragemonger in previous games.

    I'm allowed go first and run forward, keeping my marauders in cover since he has both Nicia and blasts on his gargantuan.

    He kills two Marauders nonetheless. But he offers me a couple of targets.

    I feat and get to work. A Vorogger pulls in a Tormentor and kills most of it. A unit of Marauders finishes it.

    A unit of fully buffed Marauders goes into the Guardian of Souls. After spraying though it twice killing both Regna and Orin, they manage to kill it.

    I had a second unit ready to finish it, but that can now put his shots into a Soul Stalker and his backline, as does a third one.

    The Soul Stalker is still alive, but Omodamos is running low on marked souls and there are no cultists any more to hand out Essence.

    He feats and commits Omodamos the snake and his Holwers, but can not clear any flags.

    In my turn I finish the Soul Stalker and most of his Howlers. He has only his caster and some assorted grunts left, so I keep Ragemonger on the other side of a building outside of range and line of sight. Better safe than sorry.

    He does not get to my caster and continues to lose the last of his models, ending the game with 7:2


    The brinebloods in the other team also manage to win their games putting us at 3:2.

    During lunch we check out the 3:1 bracket and there are quite some hard matches in there. In the end, we get the Dino Riders from Zu...


    Round 5 vs USA Team Crichton on Battle Lines


    Another round into USA and these guys probably know the rules better than we do, since two of them are Infernals.

    The pairing process puts me against Philip running Khymera, and I'm in for another game with Ragemonger into Kyrrax.

    He is allowed to go first, which I really do not like. He runs up threats almost into my deployment zone.

    I move up a little bit, but put some Pyg Dirges in Range to contest next round.

    He stays outside of my shooting range and huddles around the Wyverns. He only messes up the measurement on his solo on the left flag, that is clearly in range of both Mark the Target and a Marauder crew. I commit it to clear the left side of all solos that could score the flag. Then I run a heavy with Fortify into the middle and stay out of everything else.

    He needs to commit a Wyvern and his Death Dealers to clear the middle, some Lashers to kill the Marauders on the left and repos his Incarnate knigths to contest on the right.

    I feat and kill everything that he offered me. After the turn, he is running severely low on models. He commits his caster and beasts to not lose on scenario. However, that puts them into range of 3 units of Marauders who take all the buffs they can get and then kill first the beasts and then the caster with attacks to spare.

    My opponent needs a smoke. After that we clean up the table and get something to drink.

    The team goes 4:1 this round, putting us in the 4:1 bracket.


    Epilog

    Overall, we make 5th as the highest placing German team, losing only to the new World Champions. Some of us are a bit frustrated by their personal performance, but we are happy with the team result.


    After cleaning up the gaming tables, we watch the closing ceremony, say goodbye to a lot of old and new friends and get into our cars to get back home. Of course we were discussing games and matchups on the way, but I think I will not play for a week or two...



    Congratulations to the winners (and the 2nd and 3rd places of course), painters, shirt designers, Torchbearers and everybody who got an award.

    Thanks a lot to PapaKhadan , Ronan , Raskild , the judges, the german meta (I remember seeing AdmiralNelson, Hjard , Vlad) who helped with a lot of jobs and everybody else who made this such a great experience.

    Thanks to my opponents for great games. I enjoyed every single one of them and would like to hear your side of the matches. I hope we meet again in future tournaments.

    Thanks of course to my team and the other German teams and assorted attendees who made the training house a great experience.

    And of course pocketcanoe who got me there and back again.


  • Übung macht weniger schlecht: Right in the Nuts

    10.08. - Right in the Nuts

    While getting a breakfast at the hotel, I'm already approached by Ccarolus from Spain and asked for a jersey trade. They have a great logo, the torchbearer award logo from 2023 and on top of that his specific jersey is Brineblood themed with artwork of both Boomhowler and Ragemonger. Also, the Spaniards are great sports, so I just can't refuse, even if we did not play against each other.


    Then we walk the 5 minutes back to the venue. The opening ceremony is streamed and Ben does his best to adress all topics that might be coming up over the chattering of a hundred exited people.

    After the last words have been said, the pairings are finally published and we are off to our games agains a certain team sporting a Sandworm on their jersey...


    Round 1 vs USA Team Herbert on Payload


    The US guys are bringing Dusk, Orgoth, Brinebloods, Infernals and Khymera. However, the lists are often quite different from what we are accustomed to. Even with online play, the metas in the other parts of the world are still quite different.

    We get matchups that we think are in our favour or at least even. I'm paired against Aaron Allen who visited my first bootcamp with the German team in 2022 and he was also my last match at the previous WTC in Copenhagen. It's a small crowd that is playing internationally...

    As we are both expecting, we are playing Kyrrax into Ragemonger.

    The game starts with both of us dancing around each others threat ranges. He can charge almost as far as I can shoot if both of us get optimal conditions.

    In the end, I need to commit a heavy to contest the center and he goes in with a Wyvern and Death Dealers to kill it. He also gets some Marauders that I did not place correctly. Bad times for me. But I have targets in range and the grind starts.

    Over the next rounds I manage to kill his Wyvern, Incarnate Knights, Death Dealers and Lashers, he takes out most of my Marauder Crews. We are ven on Scenario, but I'm up in clock and he can probably not kill enough stuff to stop me from taking his Wyvern and domination scenarion next round.

    I misjudged the amount of damage I need to free one objective and threw a Furys Strength onto my Marauders with Ragemonger. That puts me in a spot where I'm camping 3 behind a cloud, outside of line of sight from his Wyvern, just a sliver outside of killbox.

    He still takes the assassination, procs alpha hunter, throws hunters mark onto a Marauder and clears a landing spot for the Wyvern that can charge for free and then starts hitting Ragemonger, burning through the whole stack of fury and killing him on his second to last attack. Very well spotted and very well played by Aaron.

    I'm a bit disappointed in myself. Had I just put Fortify on the caster and run of to the side of the board, this would not have happened.

    Luckily my team saves me and we win the round 3:2 with only Dusk and me loosing to our respective opponents



    I put up my stuff for the painting selection process, but once again, I'm not selected. I can understand, since there are some absolutely amazing conversions and paint jobs that clearly outshine my comic style painting. I'll still keep trying, though. ;)


    We are sitting at lunch when we hear the warcry of "PAIRINGS ARE UP!" And it's our friends from down under.



    Round 2 vs Australia Thorny Devils on Recon MK4


    The pairing goes ok for us and we are not unhappy with our matchups.

    I'm paired against James of the Sixes To Win podcast.

    I did beat him and his Infernals just a few days prior, when they were visiting us at our training camp so I am quite confident into the match.

    He chooses Zaateroth, as expected and I'm taking Ragemonger.

    He is first player and I give him the side with lots of obstructions. That should stop his Gargantuan going whereever he wants to.

    He runs up, I do as well and stay outside of his threats. He runs into me again and feats.

    I manage to kill a lot of things. Two heavys, a Lamenter, several Howlers, all Grievers. It is a pretty good turn, but it costs me a lot of clock.

    He retaliates as good as he can and removes a lot of Marauders, but he can not move his gargantuan forward. Otherwise he will lose it. But he can still contest and goes up on scenario

    In my turn I kill most of his remaining stuff that can do any fighting. But a Foreboder still contests my solo scenario. I take the cache instead.

    And then I mess my game up in one activation. There are two marauders left to activate. And I was sure they had some job to do. But nothing is in range.

    So I walk them behind a wall and pass my turn..


    Their job was to run up just 4'' further to contest. But as they did not, James scores and wins on scenario.

    At least, my game was not deciding the round. The Australians play a very strong round and beat us 1:4 to advance to the winners bracket.

    Oh well. That means I'll be rooting for them now to help our SoS.



    Round 3 vs France Caesar on Invasion


    The French are next. The pairing process leaves me till last and we can decide to either have a Brineblood mirror and play Khador into Grymkin or drop me into Grymkin and have our Khador player play into Brinebloods. Since Luke has never seen Grymkin on the table but I have, we decide that tabletime is better than our matchup predictions, so I'm dropped into slec and his nightmarefolk.

    We already know each other from the online leagues, but we have never played each other in real life.

    He drops Dreamer and I chose Ragemonger. I would have expected Old Witch.

    I win the starting roll and let him go first. He runs on his first turn, as do I, staying out of his threats. That puts him in a bind since my shooting outthreats him.

    I clear the left side so he does not score his scenario terrain, stay out of his threat on the right side and charge a Diretroll into the middle to try and fail to kill one of his Cage Ragers. But that should bind his warbeasts for a bit.

    I can score both outside flags and the scenario terrain, going 3:0 and moving his flag towards my side.

    He can only kill the heavy in the middle and score his terrain and middle flag. However, he contests all other scenarios and goes 3:2

    I can contest his middle flag and scenario, kill the remaining boxes on his Cage Rager, clear up both side flags and my middle flag to score 7:2

    Slec tries to find an assassination, but I'm camping 3 fury, 0.5'' outside killbox, behind a wall in a forest with prowl. He does not see any way of scoring 3 while contesting all my elements and concedes.



    I see a trollblood Caesar on slecs shirt and he agrees to swap after our last game on Sunday.

    My team also wins their matches and we go 5:0. We have some hopes to maybe get a good placement after all.

    We get some drinks and count the badges we accumulated. 9 so far. We had to give 6 to our opponents.

    We check out the 2:1 bracket, but there are just too many teams to go though all of them.

  • Übung macht weniger schlecht: Right in the Nuts

    WTC 2024, 09.08.-11.08., Düsseldorf

    Longshanks

    09.08. - Prolog

    The german teams pack up their stuff at the training house in the Netherlands to drive the hour to Düsseldorf.

    Apparently tidying up after a week of Warmachine games with 14-20 people takes a bit longer than expected, so we do not make it in time to help set up the tables in Düsseldorf.

    When we arrive we are already greeted by a lot of people and a hall filled with fully set up tables including 3D terrain. I know some of the stuff, having painted a small share of it, but only now do I realize the size of this operation.

    We make our first round, hug a lot of people and look in awe at Raskild and his henchmen setting up the streaming tables. That stuff looks quite expensive...

    Even though it is not 15:00 yet, we hear rumors of the hotel check-in being possible and make our way over there. It 's a 5 min walk and with the heat and humidity, I'm soaked already.

    The rooms are great and air conditioned, so I take a shower and change into a team jersey. We have a friendly game lined up for later today.

    Back at the location, I see THE Brineblood vessel for the first time. If you know, you know. If you don't, check out THIS!

    Christoph who built it is a great guy (and painter, and modeler) and hands me a Brineblood themed round counter. I accept and immediately forgive him for making my own attempts of throwing paint in the general direction of models look bad.

    PapaKhadan calls all the terrain painters for the tournament tables and hands us a small present to thank us. And by small I mean an absolute massive tournament tray for each one. I won't be able to fit this weekends army on it, but that's my fault for running 33 medium bases 8 large bases and an extra large-base.

    More and more people are coming and it's approaching 18:00, where we will have our friendly game vs the Fins of Iki-Turso, which is apparently a sea monster with slight similarities to an upcoming tentacled gargantuan...


    Squirrels assemble!


    The Kid ( https://www.longshanks.org/player/8666/ ) running Sea Raiders,

    Nox ( https://www.longshanks.org/player/8689/ ) running Shadowflame,

    nicci ( https://www.longshanks.org/player/8645/ ) running Dusk,

    Luke.IV aka Silazz ( https://www.longshanks.org/player/26463/ ) running Winterguard

    Pomfritz ( https://www.longshanks.org/player/2136/ ) as a backup player running Dusk and

    myself ( https://www.longshanks.org/player/8376/ ) running Brineblood


    My plan is to drop Ragemonger into most of the field. What Shadowtongue is supposed to take is everything running a Mastodon. It is really hard to protect it from a Powderkeg if you need to place everything outside of 3 of it.



    Round 0 vs Finland Iki-Turso


    We decide to do a proper pairing round including clock to get in some practice. In the end I'm paired against Teemu Syrjämäki , the currently highest rated Convergence player on longshanks. A matchup that I saw as quite positive for myself when reading the lists in preparation a few weeks ago. The only problem being, I did not test it out. There is a single player playing the clockwork legions at the WTC and I had other things to prepare for.

    Just by reading the lists I was expecting a Lucant vs Ragemonger match, and that is exactly what I'm getting.

    We roll of and I'm going first.He takes the side that will make it possible for him to better protect his TEPs. Damn, I hate those things!

    I deploy symmetrically with my beasts centrally. One Fire Guardian in position to score the right flag, the other one at my scenario terrain.

    He skews his TEPs slightly to my right and has Asphyxious on my left side.

    The first two rounds are as expected. I run forward, he run forward, puts up deceleration and feats. If I stay out of his threats, I will lose on scenario very quickly. So I need to go in.

    I manage to get a drag with my Vorogger on his stabby heavy, drag it in and kill it with the help of a Deep Born.

    I also send in 3 units of Marauders with all the buffs and mini-feats I can put put.

    I only kill a few of his infantry models and manage to spray off a few assorted servitors.

    Every bit helps so he can not get to my scenario elements to contest.

    On his turn, he starts to clear of models, kills three whole marauder units and most of a heavy and scores 3:1.

    I retaliate by removing most of his infantry and Asphyxious. I run a heavy with Fortify to the right side to threaten his TEP.

    The left side is mine now, but I need to be aware of possible assassinations. 3:3

    He works on my heavies and kills one Deepborn. The hurt one without Fortify, but not enough to score far ahead.

    In retaliation I take his middle TEP and will be taking his last remaining heavies next round since he can not kill a unit of Marauders and a heavy with what he has. He tries to find a way to get any kind of assassination on Ragemonger, but I'm camping 5 behind a forest, far away from the last remaining TEP and shielded from his last heavy by my heavy and a unit of Marauders. He clocks out. A hard fought match and not as good for me as I anticipated, but I managed to pull through.


    I find some badges for old Warmachine leagues on Ronan s rummage table and decide to purchase enough to give out one for each win in our team.

    Either to us, or to our opponents.

    We have a couple of beers and go to bed. We will have some more games tomorrow that will probably be far from easy.



  • Saschas WTC2024 Dump (english)

    Zitat von Hjard

    What Sascha didn't mention is that Marcel's game held up 2 1/2 Judges for like 10 minutes because of course they managed to find some random crap probably even PP didn't ever think off. And then only lost two Marauders too it. He had like 30 more of them (statement might involve hyperbole)

    I did not really care about the two Marauders. I sent them there to die and be buried in an unmarked grave.

    I would have just given them to him but we both found the question so interesting that we wanted to know the answer.

    I think the judges decided to even bother one of the two infernals that were present... :P



    Sascha thanks for being there, it was nice meeting you after being told stories about you by the old guard for years. Also thank you for taking some pictures of me. It helps prove to my wife that I really do what I tell her. :saint:

  • Übung macht weniger schlecht: Right in the Nuts

    Topmodellvilla Tag 5


    Die Nacht war besser. Morgens schnell ne. Kaffee kochen, dann bin ich fürs erste Spiel verabredet.


    Spiel 13 Thomas mit Wolfe

    Das Spiel läuft. Ich sollte gegen Cygnar gut die Attrition spielen können.


    Danach wird erstmal gekocht. Petra, Tobi und ich haben Kochdienst. Es ist überraschend, wieviel 15 Leute essen können…


    Spiel 14 Petra mit Shyryss

    Nochmal Shadowtongue auspacken, un ihn nicht ganz zu verlernen. Macht Laune und war in diesem Spiel auch gut.


    Spiel 15 Tobi mit Baranova

    Diesmal tut Shadowtongue was er soll und ich hole das Szenario gegen den großen bösen Mastodon.


    Zwischendrin noch Trikots waschen, Widgets tauschen um alle drei Logos im Tray zu haben und den Abend am Feuer ausklingen lassen.


    15 Spiele gemacht, viel gelernt und morgen geht es dann auf nach Düsseldorf…

  • Übung macht weniger schlecht: Right in the Nuts

    Topmodelvilla Tag 3


    Ich werde von Stechmücken attackiert und fliehe um 6 Uhr aus den Bett.

    Dusche Kaffee, Frühstück und los gehts.


    Spiel 8 gegen Nicci mit Hellyth.

    Eigentlich ganz gut, aber am Ende holt sie die Assassination.


    Spiel 9 gegen Nicci mit Tyrus

    Diesmal ist er im Szenario zu weit vorne und ich muss die Assassination nehme.


    Spiel 10 gegen Kevin mir Shyryss

    Ganz schöner Grind und ein Tanz um die Threatranges.


    Inzwischen ist auch der Besuch aus Australien angekommen. Es wird ein bisschen geschnackt und wir machen ein paar Spiele gegeneinander.


    Spiel 11 gegen Janes mit Zaateroth

    Er spielt es sehr verhalten, und schafft am Ende eine Assassination nicht.


    Spiel 12 gegen Steve mir Scyrafael

    Wird immer besser. Sehr viel Übungssache. Am Ende kann ich die Assassination hole.


    Wieder 5 Spiele. Ganz ordentlich. Morgen nochmal 3 oder 4 und ich bin zufrieden mit dem Training.

  • Übung macht weniger schlecht: Right in the Nuts

    Topmodel Villa Tag 2

    Aufwachen und gleich losspielen…


    Spiel 3 gegen Brezel mit Israfael

    Harter Grind, aber spielbar. Wir recht knapp Ende


    Dann erstmal Kaffee. Irgendwie hab ich das vergessen…


    Runde 4 gegen Robin mit Horruskh

    Ehrliches auf die Nase hauen. Nur die Slams von Horrushk nerven…


    Runde 5 gegen Lenny mit Zaateroth

    Katastrophe! Ich spiele es schlecht und die Infernals gehen im Szenario uneinholbar nach vorne.



    Runde 6 gegen Enes mit Scaverous

    Cryx ist nicht mehr so schlimm wie für die alten Trolle, aber leider auch nicht so einfach wie erhofft.


    Dann erstmal Pizza :thumbup:



    Und dann noch eine letzte Runde.


    Runde 7 gegen Stephan mit Asphyxious

    Dark Operations kann immer noch böse Dinge tun, aber nicht mehr der Autoloss den ich gegen sie letztes Jahr hatte.



    5 Spiele an einem Tag sollten reichen. Noch bissel quatschen und ab ins Bett.

  • Übung macht weniger schlecht: Right in the Nuts

    Topmodelvilla Tag 1


    Auf dem Weg zu Steve erstmal Frühstück für Eichhörnchen besorgen. Dann los gen Westen.


    Das Trainingshaus liegt mitten in Nirgendwo in den Niederlanden.

    Dafür gibt es jede Menge Platz, und Unterhaltung haben wir selbst dabei.



    Der Merch wird verteilt und dann gehen die ersten Spiele los.


    Spiel 1: Gegen Luke mit Baranova. Das Mastodon ist immer noch ein Problem. Daran muss ich arbeiten…


    Spiel 2: Gegen Markus mit Zaal. Das geht schon, ich darf ihm bloß die Assassination nicht geben.

  • Übung macht weniger schlecht: Right in the Nuts

    05.08.-09.08.: Warmachine Topmodel Villa 2024



    Morgen früh gehts los ins diesjährige Trainingshaus und ich bin gehyped.

    Die Figuren sind bemalt, die Batterien sind geladen, die Taschen sind gepackt.


    Ich werde versuchen hier jeden Tag ein paar Bilder con meinen Spielen und dem drumherum zu posten.