Battle Report 63: Las Vegas Open Invitational Round 3 - Wurmwood vs. Baldur 2

Prologue:

Going into the Semi-Finals, there were three Circle players and a Convergence player. I really didn't feel great into any of the lists (or the players, the shark tank at LVO is real!), and looking back at it, I hadn't eaten or had anything to drink in about 8 hours at this point. 

Pro tip - stay hydrated and eat snacks at big events, it's important. 

Ready or not, I was paired with Tom Guan in the Semi-finals. He had a Wurmwood list that was similar to mine and a REALLY cool Baldur 2 list with the Storm Raptor on Una 1. 

He dropped Baldur, I dropped Wurmwood. 

Baldur 2:

- Megalith 

- Pureblood

Una 1

- Stormraptor

Ogrun Bokur x2 (clients to Sentry Stones)

Gobber Chef

Sentry Stone x2

Shifting Stones

Swamp Gobbers Bellow Crew

vs. 

Wurmwood

- Cassius

- Megalith

- Pureblood

- Woldwyrd x3

Gallows Grove

Blackclad Wayfarer

Sentry Stone x2

Shifting Stone x2

Min Bone Grinders

Gatormen Bokur

I won the roll off and chose second, taking the side with the big forest. 

Also I forgot that Una 1 gives her battlegroup Birds Eye - I haven't played her with anything but Scarsfells in so long that I just remember they have tracker. 

Baldur turn 1:

He runs at me turn 1. No spells up, nothing. Una snuggles into the Storm Raptor and stays in the trio of Shifting Stones.

Megalith tramples at the very end and puts Roots of the Earth on the Storm Raptor.

Wurmwood turn 1:

This turn kind of signals how the rest of the game is going to go, and it all starts so innocently.

The Bone Grinders craft Wurmwood a talisman and then try and ritualistically murder eachother like they do every game, but I miss two attack rolls.

Awkward.

I have a Woldwyrd shoot two of them, but miss once and then the second one toughs.

Basically I can't get to three souls on the tree to save my ilfe.

I port Wurmwood to exactly 12 inches from the Storm Raptor, and Tom kindly reminds me about Birds Eye, so I try, and fail, to Stranglehold the Raptor before camping four.

Megalith tramples up and also tries to Stranglehold the Raptor, but fails.

I brace for impact. Tom likes to go for assassinations I've been told, and Wurmwood is within charge range.

Unfortunately I really don't have a choice here. He's up a gargantuan to my three lights, and I need to bait it out in order to have a chance.

I flood the zone and pass the clock.

Baldur turn 2:

Tom's Sentry Mannikins go nuts and blow up everything the Storm Raptor needed dead.

Una gets ported up, casts Dog Pile at Wurmwood and misses somehow, and then casts it again and hits.

The Storm Raptor charges in but fails to kill Wurmwood. Phew.

Everything else he has toes the zone and he passes the turn. Una is camping nothing.

Wurmwood turn 2:

I place a Mannikin in melee with Una, and another in the zone.

Wurmwood gets nine fury.

Una dies to the first Mannikin attack, and I breath a sigh of relief. I was still playing in my head with Mark 2 wild beast rules, which meant that I thought the Raptor was stuck where he was. (Spoilers, I was wrong).

Lanyssa casts Hunters Mark at the Bokur in front of bad Megalith (she couldn't reach Megalith with it).

Wurmwood gets Curse of Shadows onto bad Megalith, and yanks Cassius back.

My Megalith charges and kills bad Megalith, but for some reason I don't buy my last attack on the knocked down Bokur.

One of my Woldwyrds kills his Central Sentry Stone, and I push into the zone with Shamblers.

I score 1 point, and Baldur does not thanks to a contesting Mannikin.

Score 1-0

Advantage Wurmwood

Baldur turn 3:

Tom spends a few minutes reading the Wild rules, and then has me look at them to confirm we both get it. Turns out, you can literally run a Wild warbeast anywhere now. Uh oh.

He clears a landing spot for the Storm Raptor.

His Pureblood warps Strength and kills Megalith (remember, I had to transfer to him).

The Raptor runs, taking one pretty good free strike. Baldur walks up and spends a fury to restart the engine, and I'm suddenly in big trouble again. Baldur Feats, and casts a Rock Wall as well.

I score again.

Score 2-0

Advantage Wurmwood

Wurmwood turn 3:

This is the turn where things started to go really wrong.

I get Curse of Shadows on the Storm Raptor and put Wraithbane on one Woldwyrd and the Pureblood.

And then I don't Feat because I want the Bokur to charge the Pureblood.

What I SHOULD have done is simply put Wraithbane on both Wyrds and Strangleheld the Storm Raptor before popping feat.

This would have let me shoot the Raptor down to about half health, protected Cassius, and let me get another point, all the while making his entire list basically useless.

Instead, I get greedy and charge the Storm Raptor.

I miss my charge and one bought attack, and my Woldwyrds whiff for damage rolls, leaving the thing on 17 boxes.

I jam the Pureblood with the Bokur (again, he should have been hanging out in the back of the zone under Wurmwoods feat here).

I get another point.

Score 3-0

Advantage Wurmwood

Baldur turn 4:

Turns out, Curse of Shadows lets any model move through the model.

The Gobber Chef and Bokur do some damage to the Pureblood, and then Baldur finishes it, putting Roots of the Earth on the Storm Raptor.

The Storm Raptor kills the Bokur, and the Pureblood assaults Cassius, killing him and the Sentry Stone next to him AND contesting.

Score 3-0

Advantage Wurmwood

Wurmwood turn 4:

I see an opening here. If I can kill the Raptor with two wyrds, a charging pair of Shamblers, and Lanyssa, I can use the other to kill the contesting Shifting Stone. I can port Wurmwood into the zone, Hellmouth the Pureblood OUT of the zone, and Hellmouth the two contesting models to death (if the Sentry Stones don't kill them first).

Long story short, it takes every single attack I have to kill the Raptor, and I don't kill the Chef.

I Hellmouth the Pureblood away from the flag, and then I just sit on four fury with no transfer targets instead of healing up to 10 boxes. I feat.

I surround the Pureblood with Shifting Stones and score again.

Score 4-0

Advantage Wurmwood

Baldur turn 5:

Tom has Baldur heal the Pureblood to full. The Pureblood Warps Ghostly and tramples to Wurmwood, killing him.

Victory for the (other) Druids!

Post-Game Thoughts:

This was such a grind. There were probably ten people watching this game just shaking their heads at the craziness as Tom and I traded advantages back and forth. I feel like I made a couple of critical mistakes in the later turns that cost me the game, although the only reason I've found them is by looking back at the game over and over and over again. ( I had a long plane ride home with not much else to do). 

If I'd gone with the plan of Feating a turn earlier and whittling the Storm Raptor down, my Pureblood would have lived, and the Raptor would have been dead after one more turn of shooting and having the Pureblood charge at the end of that. If I'd healed Wurmwood every turn after the first, I would have likely liver through the Pureblood assassination. 

Those two mistakes cost me the game. I'm incredibly impressed that Tom was able to salvage his situation after turn 2 - the guy is an incredible player. 

I'll be writing a "what now" article at some point in the next couple of days, but I was very happy with my performance at the LVO. Breaking into the semi-finals undefeated was a huge accomplishment for me, and I'm extremely excited to look ahead to the next set of tournaments in 2017. 

Thanks for reading!

Battle Report 62: Las Vegas Open Invitational Round 2 - Wurmwood vs. Stryker 1

Round two, guaranteed top 8, and another really hard matchup.

Julien is another one of those incredible Warmachine players from Texas (why are there so darn many?) and he was playing a really nasty pair - Haley 2 in theme and a Stryker 1 list in a theme that he called "Janky Crap".

We were playing Take and Hold, and I figured Wurmwood was probably the right play into both of his lists (so many eLeaps), and was delighted when he dropped Stryker instead of Haley. Haley is a scary lady, and while Stryker does have a time walk feat, it's a manageable game if I can make him do that on my feat turn.

Stryker 1
- Reinholdt
- Stormwall
- Firefly

Alain Runewood
- Dynamo
Strangeways
Laddermore

Max Storm Lances


And my Wurmwood list, for those of you who haven't read the last few reports:

Wurmwood
- Cassius
- Megalith
- Pureblood
- Woldwyrd x3

Gallows Grove
Lanyssa

Shifting Stones x2
Sentry Stones x2
Min Bonegrinders
Gatormen Bokur and Shamblers


I won the roll off, and since we were playing Take and Hold, I windmill slammed going second on side with a reasonable chance to build forest walls in.

I made a massive mistake on deployment here - I put Cassius on the wrong side of the table. I was intending to use him to kill a Shambler turn 1 and complete my LOS denial, but then I randomly was like "nah, he's good on this side instead.

Derp.

Cygnar turn 1:

This is a pretty standard turn. Arcane Shield goes on the Stormlances, Snipe goes on the Stormwall.

Things durdle on up. Julien does quite a bit of premeasuring for his next turn with Reinholdt and Stryker here, so I have no illusions that one of my Sentry Stones is dying no matter what I do.

Circle turn 1:

I'd realized my deployment mistake the second I clocked back over to Julien, and now I was going to pay for it.

I build a forest wall as best I can, and then use the forest on my left to give Lanyssa and my Grove stealth, as well as to hide my Woldwyrd in but still within striking range of the hill.

Everything else advances up onto the hill to make it problematic for lances to hit things.

Cygnar turn 2:

What I'm expecting is a feat and jam play, but what happens instead is a turn of shooting. I somehow don't have a picture for this turn though.

Stryker drops Snipe and upkeeps Arcane Shield.

He re-casts Snipe on Dynamo, and then moves over behind the Firefly.

Reinholdt moves up and strips Stealth off a Sentry Stone, and the Stormwall blasts it to death and puts down covering fire.

The Stormlances back off slightly to stay out of range of things.

Dynamo gets the +2 to hit from Jack Marshal, and murders the Bokur and a few Shamblers.

Circle turn 2:

I craft Wurmwood a talisman, and then port him up on the hill.

Cassius runs to make sure Wurmwood can Dark Path back to the flag.

My two right hand Woldwyrds nearly kill the Firefly, but keep missing those sevens to hit.

Megalith durdles up in charge range of the Stormwall, for next turn, and casts Stranglehold at the Firefly.

Wurmwood activates, Strangleholds the Stormwall and then casts Curse of Shadows on Dynamo before porting back to Cassius and popping his Feat.

This is a nice little break. I finish things off by moving the Woldwyrd on the left up and casually killing Dynamo in two shots. Yeah.....

All of a sudden I felt really, really good about the game.

Lanyssa moves up and casts Winter Storm at max command, catching just the Stormwall.

I score one point.

Score 1-0

Advantage Circle

 Cygnar turn 3:

Julien is in a bit of a spot here. Dynamo wasn't supposed to die like that (although the math says he does only live through a Woldwyrd shooting him with three boxes), and I've been much more aggressive on Scenario than I think he was expecting.

He allocates nothing and upkeeps Arcane Shield. 

It's Feat turn. Stryker moves over and pops his Feat.

Stormwall moves to contest the flag on the left, and the Stormlances get pathfinder from Alain before walking up, killing some dudes, and then repositioning into the flag.

Laddermore runs to get inside the feat.

Score 1-0

Advantage Circle

Circle turn 3:

Time to try and murder everything?

Wurmwood goes first and casts Curse of Shadows at the Stormlances, and then puts Wraithbane on both Woldwyrds.

Between two Woldywrds and the Pureblood spraying, I kill off three Stormlances.

Cassius runs away so Wurmwood has somewhere to go if things get rough.

I look at the table and decide I need to sacrifice Megalith to the Stormwall this turn.

If I can force him to turn the Stormwall to the left, he won't be able to shoot as effectively when I inevitably start Strangleholding him every turn. Also, with Weight of Stone, the Stormwall becomes speed 2, and won't be able to contest the important flag.

I run lots of guys around the flag on the left, and the Woldwyrd over there takes 5 out of Arlan's 8 health.

I port one unit of stones up so they are within healing field range of Woldwyrds, and I port the other unit out to make it impossible for the Stormwall to trample and land near Wurmwood.

I score again.

Score 2-0

Advantage Circle

 Cygnar turn 4:

He can't ignore Megalith, so the Stormwall gets a focus, and Arcane Shield stays up.

Lances charge in and fail to kill anything, but do knock out a few systems.

Runewood charges and kills my Sentry Stone.

Arlan gives the Stormwall a focus, and the Stormwall misses one attack, leaving Megalith on one. Stryker moves up and kills Megalith, and Julien passes the turn.

Score 2-0

Advantage Circle

 Circle turn 4:

I upkeep Curse of Shadows and go to ten fury.

Stormlances die to Woldwyrds, but I can't dismount Laddermore without committing the Pureblood, who fails to kill her dismount. At least she's not contesting.

I get Curse of Shadows on the Stormwall, and charging Shamblers do about twenty damage to it. Nice!

The remaining Bone Grinder charges and kills Runewood, and I use the far side Woldwyrd to kill off Arlan so the Stormwall can't be repaired.

I port the Shifting Stones around the Pureblood and Wurmwood, in easy range to leach fury and then either heal or teleport.

I score another point.

Score 3-0

Advantage Circle

Cygnar turn 5:

The grind continues.

The Stormwall kills all of the Shamblers easily. Stryker moves up and nearly kills the Woldwyrd, but decides to camp a couple of focus in case I get cheeky and try a spell assassination.

Laddermore walks up and pokes a Woldwyrd, but doesn't cripple anything.

Score 3-0

Advantage Circle

Circle turn 5:

I upkeep Curse of Shadows and use the Woldywrd engaging Laddermore to put her down.

The other one boosts some damage shots into the Stormwall, doing something like 10 more damage.

The Pureblood gets ported into the Stormwalls back arc and Warps Strength. The Stormwall has about 25 boxes left, and the Pureblood easily takes it down.

I score another point, and Julien calls the game.

Victory for the Druids!

Post-Game Thoughts:

What a grind. This game really showcased the power of Woldwyrds. Between them, they killed an entire unit of Stormlances, Dynamo, Arlan, and 1/3 of a Stormwall. Not bad at all!

Julien and I talked about the game at length afterwards, and basically we decided that upkeeping Arcane Shield on his feat turn was the wrong play. Without Purgation, the Woldwyrds are much less likely to kill them, and I can ignore it with Wraithbane anyway. 

This was another excellent, excellent game. Julien was a great opponent, and really pushed both me and my list to the edge of what I could handle. 

On to round three!

Battle Report 61: Las Vegas Open Masters Invitational Round 1 - Wurmwood vs. Una 2

Oh boy oh boy oh boy!

The mythical day two.

Naturally this is a good time to panic right?

In consultation with Bret F. (chocobsessed) and a few other people, I made a quick pair of swaps in my Wurmwood list.


Out
- Brennos
- Blackclad

In
- Pureblood
- Lanyssa


The reason for these changes was simple - there was a lot of armor buffs in the top 16, and there was a LOT of Una 2. The Pureblood is better into both of these, and Lanyssa can randomly strip flight off a few birds, making them much less scary.


Of course, this meant that I was destined to play Bret round 1.

I was very nervous going into this game. Bret is one of the most respected players in the states, and he's also been playing Circle for a lot longer than I have.

He had Tanith and Una, and we had both agreed his Tanith list had next to no chance into my Wurmwood gunline, so I knew he was playing Una and he knew I was playing Wurmwood.


Bret:

Una 2
- Scarsfell x8
- Pureblood
- Gorax

Wrong Eye
- Snapjaw
Gobber Chef

Sentry Stone x1

Arcane Wonder

and me!

Wurmwood
- Cassius
- Pureblood
- Megalith
- Woldwyrd x3

Lanyssa
Gallows Grove

Shifting Stones x2
Sentry Stones x2
Min Bone Grinders
Gatormen Bokur

Fuel Cache

I won the roll off and windmill slammed going first, and Bret took the side with the trench for Una to hide in.

We were playing on the sweet, sweet table that Tyson had made for LVO. The Terrain for Bret's side is a trench and a forest and a huge obstacle.

On my side, it's a forest, a pond, and a hill.

I deployed nice and centrally. I needed to force him to come to me with his feat to run around my models or I didn't have a chance, and I actually present quite a significant shooting threat to his list. 

The birds...so many.

I should also point out that this game was played pre-Una 2 nerf, so her original feat was still here and so was the Scarsfells having Long Leash.


Good Circle turn 1:

I basically run like mad. I need to project as many threats as possible. I keep Megalith and the Pureblood central, there are so many griffons on my right side that I suspect he's going for Scenario here and I want to keep my options open.

The Bokur is great into the birds, he stops so many landing spots, and he keeps on coming.

Bad Circle turn 1:

He skews the Griffons hard to the right and puts Una into the trench. Mirage is on a Griffon, and he doesn't cast Hand of Fate, electing to shoot down Sentry Mannikins with Una instead.

Good Circle turn 2:

I see an opening. I can Hellmouth Una out of the trench with a Mannikin. She's only camping two, and I can get two Woldwyrds, Megalith's animus, and a Pureblood spray on her.

I run Shamblers around like crazy, keeping them in command. We premeasure it out, and Una gets Hellmouthed out of the trench. I boost damage and she transfers.

Megalith tramples up, pops his animus to make her DEF 13, and Strangleholds her for a few more.

The two Woldwyrds leave her on a few boxes, and the Pureblood sprays her to death.

Victory for the (good) Druids!

Post-Game Thoughts:

We had a decent laugh after this game because I'd talked about how this tended to happen and Bret told me what I already knew - put two heavies in front of your caster and this is basically impossible. 

If that hadn't have worked, I think I was going to be able to get a really, REALLY good Winter Storm of with Lanyssa by walking her over to the obstacle and making....all? of the Griffons lose flight the next turn. I don't think that he could have walked more than one over to her, and I could have stopped that by blocking her in with a Woldwyrd. 

I'm really glad I didn't have to play this out, since I don't think I am favored in this matchup. 

That being said, after consulting with various other Circle players since then, I think that a Wurmwood gunline can be built to have a very strong matchup into pre-nerf Una 2 (not that that matters anymore), and with the loss of long leash, I think Wurmwood is actually quite favored into the matchup now, since Una has to be constantly afraid of dying.