Last week I wrote up my experiences in the Big Base Brawl, which took place on the first day of the Bokur Brawl. Today I will attempt to recall my games in the Team Event. I started playing in the Team Event last year and had such a great time I came back. This year, I was playing on Team Meat with Mark Howard, Keith Baker, Kat Royer and Mike Ireland. I was listed on the paper as the team captain, but I was really just handling the paperwork between rounds. Mike Ireland took care of the pairing process for us. We were bringing Menoth (Mark), Retribution (Kat), Mercs (Mike), Cygnar (Keith) and Cryx (myself).
My own lists consisted of the same Skarre3 list I brought to the Big Base Brawl and a slightly different Skarre1 list than what I had run in the Big Base Brawl. I entered the event believing that Skarre3 would be my primary drop due to her strength as a generalist caster as well as my overall comfort after playing her as my primary for much of the last 18 months. The Skarre1 list is one that I stole directly from Brad Park. It runs Skarre1 with three stalkers and a ripjaw and puts another two stalkers on Aikos. The list also runs a pair of wraith engines. In speaking with Brad, he said the list really wants to push hard on scenario, winning on turn 2 or 3 if possible. When the game stretches out beyond turn 4, the list starts to really run out of steam and it likely to end up getting ground down. List lock for the Team Event came a few weeks before the event, and before lists for the WTC were released. If I had seen the eight stalker list early enough, I probably would have run it in both events. That said, this list asks a different set of questions. Five stalkers is still a lot to deal with and the two wraith engines require different tools. After playing Skarre1 with eight stalkers in four rounds of the Big Base Brawl, I thought I had some comfort with how the list should play.
My Lists
[Skarre 1] Pirate Queen Skarre [+28] - Black Industries
- Ripjaw [7]
- Stalker [8]
- Stalker [8]
- Stalker [8]
- Skarlock Thrall [0(4)]
Aiakos, Scourge of the Meredius [0(4)]
- Stalker [8]
- Stalker [8]
Darragh Wrathe [9]
Scrap Thrall (3) [2]
Soul Trapper [1]
Cephalyx Overlords [8]
Mechanithralls (min) [6]
- Brute Thrall (3) [0(6)]
Wraith Engine [15]
Wraith Engine [15]
[Skarre 3] Skarre, Admiral of the Black Fleet [+27] - Scourge of the Broken Coast
- Kraken [35]
- Satyxis Blood Priestess [4]
Axiara Wraithblade [0(6)]
General Gerlak Slaughterborn [0(6)]
Ragman [4]
Black Ogrun Ironmongers [6]
Blighted Trollkin Marauders (max) [15]
- Jussika Bloodtongue [5]
Bloodgorgers (max) [15]
Satyxis Blood Witches (max) [13]
- Satyxis Blood Hag [4]
Scharde Dirge Seers [0(6)]
The Bokur Brawl Team Event uses the WTC pairing system for teams. In this system, both teams roll a die to determine who gets to be Team A and who is Team B. After each pairing is determined, Team B gets to select which of the five tables that pairing will play on. Team A gets to have a little more control in selecting some of the matchups. To start the process, Team B nominates a single player for the first pairing. Team A gets to review that player's lists and nominates two players from their own team. Team B then selects one of those two players to play against their nomination. Team B then selects which table that first pairing will play on. This leaves the second player Team A nominated without an opponent. Team B then nominates two of their own players to potentially play against Team A's nomination. Team A then selects which of those two will play against their player and Team B selects the table that pair will play on. This continues until all pairs have been selected. Team A effectively gets to choose the final two matchups, which means Team A gets to select three of the matchups and Team B gets to select two. I know this sounds a bit confusing when written out, but once you go through the process once it all makes sense.
Round one paired us against Judgement Knights of Thunder. I really wish I could give a complete breakdown of the pairing process, but for the most part I just gave a thumbs up or thumbs down on each potential matchup and then got told who I was paired against. We won the die roll and chose to select tables. In general, we felt that being able to control which table each matchup played on was more valuable than getting a little more control over the matchups. This round, I was up against Steve Lopez, who was bringing retribution to the event. His lists were:
[Vyros 2] Vyros, Incissar of the Dawnguard [+27] - Forges of War
- Discordia [18]
- Griffon [8]
- Griffon [8]
- Griffon [8]
- Griffon [8]
- Griffon [8]
- Imperatus [20]
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker [4]
Arcanist Mechanik [2]
Arcanist Mechanik [2]
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios [0(7)]
House Shyeel Arcanists [0(7)]
House Shyeel Arcanists [0(7)]
Dawnguard Trident [16]
[Ravyn 1] Ravyn, the Eternal Light [+28] - Defenders of Ios
- Harpy [9]
- Harpy [9]
- Harpy [9]
- Harpy [9]
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker [0(4)]
Arcanist Mechanik [2]
Arcanist Mechanik [2]
Arcanist Mechanik [2]
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios [0(7)]
Ghost Sniper [0(3)]
Ghost Sniper [0(3)]
Heavy Rifle Team [4]
House Vyre Electromancers [7]
Arcantrik Force Generator [17]
Arcantrik Force Generator [17]
Dawnguard Trident [16]
I decided that Skarre1 was probably my drop for this. I don't have much experience into Vyros2, but I thought stalkers under feat would be a good match for the griffons and Ravyn doesn't have a way to deal with all the stealth in my list. The matchup was Skarre1 vs Ravyn and the scenario was invasion. Unfortunately, I failed to take any pictures during this event, so most of what is described will need to be from memory. I lost the die roll and Steve chose to go first. Steve moved up on top of one. On the bottom of one, I ran forward, keeping my stalkers out of range of being shot, but in range to threaten his pieces next turn. The wraith engines also moved forward aggressively. I knew he had a decent amount of magical shooting, but I was hoping he didn't have enough to actually kill one of them. Meanwhile, there was a building positioned overlapping the left circle zone and the center zone on my half of the table. Skarre and Aikos stood behind this building as it allowed all the stalkers and both wraith engines to be in Skarre's control for next turn.
Steve's turn two, he mostly stayed back and unloaded all the shots he could into one wraith engine. The wraith engine remained alive at the end of the turn. The bottom of turn two was my feat turn. Ambushing mechanithralls and a stalker killed the trident. The overlords ran into the right zone to score a control point. A couple harpies were destroyed. Another was tied up as a stalker chose to kill Eiryss instead of taking out another harpy. Skarre and Aikos remained behind the house. On the top of turn three, Steve had a difficult time dealing with the stalkers. He tried to take shots into them, but most of them were engaged and up to def 19 as a result. The wraith engines were effectively arm 25 against shooting, making them unappealing targets. He spent a good portion of his time trying to see if he could free up the harpy in the left zone to try and pull Skarre out from behind the house. Unfortunately for him, he was unable to accomplish this. His remaining battle engines stayed back behind the zones and he did not get anything into the right circle to contest. On the bottom of three, I only had a few models that needed to be destroyed to clear all three zones. I also destroyed his objective, scoring four and winning 6-0 on control. I think this game was a very rough matchup for Steve. I don't know how things change if he drops Vyros2 instead, but it's also possible his team threw him into me in order to try and get different matchups for the rest of the team. In the end, Team Meat was victorious, taking the round 4-1.
Round two saw Team Meat facing off against Upsetti Ceretti Spaghetti. During the pairing process, I had given skorne a general thumbs down for my matchups, as I didn't feel good about playing into Zaal2. However, in this round I didn't like my matchups into any of the pairings our opponents presented. I had never played infernals before, so I didn't know what to expect there. I knew about the other factions, but had almost no experience playing into any of them. Due to this, I offered to take skorne if no one else wanted to play into Zaal2. We won the die roll and again elected to choose tables. Due to this, I felt like I might have a chance. There was one table in the grouping that featured three buildings all located near the center of the board. While I would normally never want to play my Skarre1 list into Zaal2, I thought the large number of obstructions could potentially give me an edge. I was paired up against Grant Richey, who brought the following lists.
[Rasheth 1] Dominar Rasheth [+28] - Winds of Death
- Agonizer [6]
- Aradus Sentinel [14]
- Basilisk Krea [7]
- Aptimus Marketh [0(5)]
Extoller Novitiate [2]
Extoller Soulward [0(3)]
Extoller Soulward [0(3)]
Feralgeist [2]
Mortitheurge Willbreaker [0(4)]
Farrow Valkyries [8]
Paingiver Beast Handlers (min) [5]
Venator Slingers (min) [8]
Siege Animantarax [17]
Siege Animantarax [17]
Supreme Guardian [16]
[Zaal 2] Zaal, the Ancestral Advocate [+29] - The Exalted
- Agonizer [6]
- Mammoth [35]
Abidan the Keeper [0(5)]
Ancestral Guardian [0(5)]
Ancestral Guardian [5]
Extoller Novitiate [2]
Extoller Novitiate [2]
Extoller Soulward [3]
Hakaar the Destroyer [0(6)]
Immortal Vessel [3]
Immortals (max) [13]
- Extoller Advocate [3]
Immortals (max) [13]
- Extoller Advocate [3]
Supreme Guardian [16]
As expected, Grant chose to play Zaal2 into my Skarre1. The scenario was anarchy, and I hoped that I could use the buildings to turn the game into a fast scenario play, though I feared the turn that Zaal2 feated would be one where I got just about nothing done. I won the roll and chose to go second. This allowed me to chose the side where two buildings were closer, which would allow my stalkers to use them to hide behind. It also meant I would have the first chance to score. Anarchy is a live scenario, and I hoped going second would allow me to press scenario. In hindsight, it might have benefited me more to take the other side. Grant had two huge bases in his list and navigating both of them around two buildings could have really slowed his approach.
On the top of one, Grant ran everything forward. On the bottom of one, I ran the stalkers into hiding behind the houses. I also moved the wraith engines forward aggressively, just keeping out of charge ranges. I knew a single shot from any of his guns would not be able to remove one of them from the table, so I felt confident moving them up. On top of two, Grant positioned a few immortals in each zone, but held mostly back. I think his intent was to wait for my feat, then commit and use his own feat second. On the bottom of turn two, I realized that I had spread my wraith engines a little further out than I really wanted to. This meant I spent a long time measuring out a safe spot for Skarre to stand. She had to stand in the middle of the board, which meant there was only a cloud between her and the mammoth. I stood far enough back to be out of the mammoth's gun range and popped feat catching most of the stalkers, both wraith engines, Darragh Wrathe, Aikos and Skarre herself. I killed the immortals in each zone. The overlords scored one zone while the ambushing mechanithralls scored the other and Darragh Wrathe stood on my flag. I was pleased that I was up 3-0 on control and felt like I might be able to pull this game out on control.
It was at this point that Grant requested that I measure kill box, which is a rule that I frequently forget about because I tend to play my casters aggressively forward. Skarre was a couple inches behind the 12" line, as that was where she had to stand in order to not be in range for the mammoth to shoot her. Speaking with Grant later, he thought in the middle of all my measuring I had either intentionally given up the two points or had found a spot that was not within 12" of the board edge. Turns out I made a mistake and now was only up 3-2, which was much less of a comfortable position. Had I remembered about kill box, I might have chosen to stand there anyway, but it's a very different situation between actively choosing to kill box yourself and accidentally doing it.
On the top of three, Grant chose to leave my wraith engines alone as he didn't want to deal with them under Skarre's feat. Instead he went after other models on the table. He also popped Zaal's feat, which meant I was going to have a hard time clearing anything on my next turn. The top and bottom of three passed without either of us scoring anything. Grant's supreme guardian was on the left flank and he started clearing that zone and scoring it on turn four. I am going to have a hard time recalling a round by round recounting from here on, but Grant started scoring the left zone and contesting my flag. I was clearing the right zone and contested his flag while the wraith engine on that side lived, but that wraith engine was destroyed on turn four or five and he started scoring his flag also. The right zone was an unusual situation. The mammoth had been sent up the middle of the table and there were two buildings around Grant's flag, which prevented the mammoth from getting into that zone. This meant the right zone was a pure battle of attrition between one stalker and the unit of overlords and a unit of immortals backed up by an ancestral guardian. Eventually, Grant was able to flip the score and the game went to 7 rounds, with Grant winning 8-7.
The only reason I had a game was because of all the terrain on the table. It appeared that in every grouping of 5 tables, there was one table with lots of line of sight blocking terrain, one that was very open and the other three were fairly balanced. Getting to chose the terrain heavy table really affected this matchup. A more open table allows Grant's huge bases to move more freely and I think I have to drop Skarre3 and hope I can grind it out. I was quite disappointed by giving up the unintentional killbox points and talked to Grant after the game about whether he would have gone after Skarre. He had used the mammoth's full battery fire already and I didn't feel great about putting Skarre out as a target. On feat turn, it's straight dice and I think she was sitting on 9 boxes after taking damage for her feat and spending some focus to heal back up. Due to the focus Skarre was camping, I was going to be effectively arm 25, but I was still worried he could just spike a dice roll and end the game right there. Grant told me he probably wouldn't have gone for it. He needed a solid damage roll spike and that would be after needing a boosted 11 to hit. The percentage was low and without using the mammoth in the attrition / scenario game he might not be able to take the lead by round 7. It was a great thing to talk through and something I should probably consider in the future (along with remembering that kill box is a rule). Thankfully, my teammates carried me through this round and Team Meat won 3-2.
The final round of day one paired Team Meat against Mid-Atlantic Mollywhoppers - What's Your Sloan Drop? Once again, when looking at the potential matchups I either felt disadvantaged or didn't know what to make of each one. I ended up offering to take whatever game no one else felt good about. I believe we again won the die roll and chose to select tables (though I am not certain about this one). I ended up being informed that I was playing into circle, piloted by Michael Stone, who had won the Warfaire Weekend Qualifier the previous day. Michael had the following lists.
[Krueger 2] Krueger the Stormlord [+27] - Bones of Orboros
- Megalith [20]
- Woldwarden [14]
- Woldwarden [14]
- Woldwarden [14]
- Woldwyrd [9]
- Woldwyrd [9]
Blackclad Stoneshaper [0(3)]
Blackclad Stoneshaper [0(3)]
Gallows Grove [2]
Hermit of Henge Hold [5]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [0(5)]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Shifting Stones [0(3)]
Shifting Stones [0(3)]
Well of Orboros [10]
[Iona 1] Iona the Unseen [+28] - The Devourer's Host
- Storm Raptor [34]
Gallows Grove [2]
Hermit of Henge Hold [5]
Lord of the Feast [0(6)]
Tharn Ravager Shaman [4]
Tharn Wolf Rider Champion [0(7)]
Boil Master & Spirit Cauldron [5]
Tharn Bloodweavers [8]
Tharn Ravagers (max) [15]
- Tharn Ravager Chieftain [0(5)]
Tharn Ravagers (max) [15]
- Tharn Ravager Chieftain [5]
Well of Orboros [10]
Michael is a great player and I was very concerned about a matchup into devourer's host. While my stalkers all have grievous wounds, I knew that he could space out enough to allow each stalker to get probably one, maybe two ravagers. I also knew the storm raptor would be able to shoot down the stalkers pretty casually and I thought it could also reasonably threaten my wraith engines, though it would probably take two rounds of shooting to bring one down. That said, I felt even worse about trying to play Skarre3 into the matchup. Ravagers can pretty casually kill the trolls and I would have needed to rely on tough checks to stop them from using mini feat to rip through full units at a time. The matchup ended up being Iona vs Skarre1 and the scenario was bunkers. Michael won the die roll and chose to go first.
On the top of one, Michael pushed everything up a little, but kept outside of my stalker's threat ranges. On the bottom of one, I started asking questions about things like how he could hand out eyeless sight or magic weapons. I forgot the ravager shaman could give any model/unit magic weapons and he took the objective to give out eyeless sight. Due to this, I kept my stalkers outside of his storm raptor's 21" threat. This meant I gave up quite a bit of scenario positioning. The top of two featured Michael pushing forward a little more to get into contesting range on the flags, while keeping the majority of his force safe. Bottom of two I held off on my ambush. I feated and positioned to use my feat defensively (I didn't think I needed the strength side to kill his stuff). We each scored our zones. Top of three, Michael came in and did a decent amount of damage. I think he cleared off and scored two flags and we each scored our own zones (2-4). The bottom of three I ambushed and used the brute thralls to kill his wolf rider on the left flag and I worked to get stuff contesting the other flags, but he had a decent attrition advantage by now. We each scored our own zone (3-5). On the top of four, he scored on all the flags and his own zone, while contesting mine. Michael won 3-9. This round Team Meat picked up our first loss, going down 1-4 in the round.
After the game we talked and he pointed out that on the bottom of one I was very conservative with my stalkers because I was worried about his storm raptor killing them. However, the storm raptor was not close enough to the objective to get eyeless sight, so I could have been much more aggressive with them. Because I kept everything farther back, he was able to press me on scenario early. It was probably a case where my best play would have been to position more aggressively on bottom of one and use bottom of two to feat and jam him out, sacrificing the stalkers to prevent him from getting to the flags. It's much easier to type that out than it would have been to attempt it on the table. I am also very uncomfortable with that kind of strategy, as I would have been trading my stalkers and wraith engines (the pieces that do all the work in this list) for victory points while getting little to nothing out of them in attrition. That said, it was likely my best path to victory in this matchup.
This concluded day one of the Team Event. After the round was done, I ended up having far more to drink than advisable for someone like me (I never have more than 1-2 drinks in a night). At some point that evening we discovered that our round four matchup was against Midatlantic Mollywhoppers - Pact with the Devil. This team featured a few players from the Mark Howard Dojo and they were exchanging messages with us the next morning. Long story short, they delayed the start of round four in order for us to get there in time and we were still late, incurring a 10 minute penalty on all our clocks.
Unfortunately, I was in almost no shape to play this game and I recall nothing of the pairing process. I feel like I need to apologize to my opponent, Julian Lesage, as he pretty much just put models on the table and then won the game. Julian's lists were as follows.
[Grim 1] Grim Angus [+29] - Kriel Company
- Earthborn Dire Troll [14]
- Mountain King [36]
- Trollkin Runebearer [0(5)]
Boomhowler, Solo Artist [0(6)]
Fell Caller Hero [0(5)]
Swamp Gobber Chef [1]
Troll Whelps [4]
Croak Raiders (max) [16]
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (min) [6]
Northkin Raiders (min) [9]
Hearthgut Hooch Hauler [18]
[Kolgrima 1] Kolgrima Stonetruth, Winter Witch [+28] - Storm of the North
- Dire Troll Bomber [19]
- Pyre Troll [8]
- Winter Troll [8]
- Trollkin Runebearer [0(5)]
Boomhowler, Solo Artist [0(6)]
Fell Caller Hero [0(5)]
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (min) [6]
- Northkin Elder [3]
Northkin Bear Handlers & Battle Bears [10]
Northkin Bear Handlers & Battle Bears [10]
Northkin Fire Eaters [7]
Northkin Fire Eaters [7]
Trollkin Champions (max) [16]
- Skaldi Bonehammer [5]
- Trollkin Sorcerer (1) [3]
I ended up choosing to play Skarre1 for two reasons. First, I was going against trolls and I wanted the grievous wounds that all the stalkers were bringing. Second, I was not prepared to play the grinding kind of game that Skarre3 inevitably gets into. Even when Skarre3 is advantaged, the game just grinds on turn after turn and in my state that morning, I was simply looking to either win or lose quickly. Ideally, I was hoping to out threat him and try for a scenario win by turn 3. The matchup was Kolgrima vs Skarre1. I lost the die roll and Julian chose to go first. The scenario was spread the net.
Julian ran up on the top of one, keeping outside of the stalker's threat ranges. On the bottom of one, I realized that he could threaten much farther than I expected with the fire eaters. I was super concerned about losing a stalker to an assault spray and held back. I ran Aikos to the left flank and tried to position to be somewhat relevant. On the top of two, Julian ambushed in his bears and killed Aikos. This was effectively the end of the game. I couldn't recover from basically losing two stalkers prior to my feat. I tried to fight back as best I could, but Julian pressed his advantage and won on scenario 1-6. I apologize that I cannot remember much else from this game, but after Aikos died there wasn't much of a game to be played. I would like to think that if I was in better shape, I might have remembered that he had an ambushing unit, but I cannot say for sure. That said, he was a great opponent and I feel badly that I don't have more to say about this game.
Between rounds four and five, I made the decision to head home. I felt very bad about leaving someone in round five without a game to play, but as my teammate Mark pointed out, could I really say that a game was played the previous round? Everyone agreed that I needed to head out. I still feel very poorly about needing to abandon the team round five and leaving someone on the opposing team without a game to play. I fully intend to come back next year, but I have learned my lesson. I will happily stay up super late with people, play board games and hang out. However, I will not attempt to keep up with others when it comes time to drink.
Some final thoughts on the weekend and my lists. First, I went into both events expecting to rely heavily on Skarre3. Instead, I played Skarre3 once all weekend. While Skarre3 is still a solid generalist caster, she doesn't pressure your opponent the same way the other lists do. She says that the game is going to be a long grind and asks if your opponent can handle that type of game. Both versions of the Skarre1 list I brought are explosive lists that attempt to heavily pressure the opponent on scenario. I did find it interesting that I generally wanted to go second so I could get the first opportunity to score and my opponents universally wanted to go first so they wouldn't get pressured off scenario elements before scoring even began. I am finding that after playing long grinding games for the last 18 months, playing a more explosive game where scenario is almost always live is a very enjoyable change of pace.
One tendency I noticed was for my opponents to measure a direct path from my stalkers when trying to find threat ranges. This was also true when the stalker was hiding behind a house or other obstruction. Due to this, I was frequently given more board space than I could actually threaten. I know in a timed game you don't want to burn a lot of clock trying to find the exact threat range when taking the house into account, but I really felt like it gave me an advantage. I also noted that turn 2 was just about always feat turn for Skarre1 (this could change based on your opponent feating or if you end up going first rather than second). On a related note, I also noticed that while I always wanted to go second for first chance at scoring, my opponents always seemed to want to go first so they wouldn't be bullied off the board by stalkers. It does make me wonder if going first with the list to basically try and jam my opponent on scenario is viable.
While the armies are fairly low model count, I was frequently taking 20-30 minutes on my turn two in order to get everything into feat / dark guidance range and get the most out of all my activations. Again, this was a change from Skarre3 where I always had to be conscious of moving quickly on my clock due to the volume of models that needed to be activated every turn.
While I enjoyed both versions of the Skarre1 list, ultimately I think I enjoyed the version in scourge that runs eight stalkers more than the black industries version. Part of this could be that it just feels odd to run a black industries list without any heavies (which effectively means you are giving up one theme benefit). I am considering actually picking up the extra stalkers required in order to run it in my local meta (I borrowed four in order to run the list at the Bokur Brawl). The wraith engines are definitely good with Skarre and bring models that require another answer from your opponent, but the sheer threat projection from eight stalkers leads to your opponent burning a lot of time trying to find safe places while still meaningfully contesting scenario.
That wraps up my thoughts on the Bokur Brawl. I will once again say that the event was fantastic and I cannot overstate how well run I thought it was. Locally, we are now in an exciting period. The Bokur Brawl is done and we don't have another scrum until January. I expect to see some crazy experimentation over the next few months as we start to really explore the possibilities brought to us by the Oblivion changes. I have a Goreshade1 list I want to try out (though it's probably just a worse version of the Skarre1 stalker lists) and I really want to explore Coven and a couple other casters. I will be back to my usual battle reports with my next post. Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I hope it was enjoyable.
My own lists consisted of the same Skarre3 list I brought to the Big Base Brawl and a slightly different Skarre1 list than what I had run in the Big Base Brawl. I entered the event believing that Skarre3 would be my primary drop due to her strength as a generalist caster as well as my overall comfort after playing her as my primary for much of the last 18 months. The Skarre1 list is one that I stole directly from Brad Park. It runs Skarre1 with three stalkers and a ripjaw and puts another two stalkers on Aikos. The list also runs a pair of wraith engines. In speaking with Brad, he said the list really wants to push hard on scenario, winning on turn 2 or 3 if possible. When the game stretches out beyond turn 4, the list starts to really run out of steam and it likely to end up getting ground down. List lock for the Team Event came a few weeks before the event, and before lists for the WTC were released. If I had seen the eight stalker list early enough, I probably would have run it in both events. That said, this list asks a different set of questions. Five stalkers is still a lot to deal with and the two wraith engines require different tools. After playing Skarre1 with eight stalkers in four rounds of the Big Base Brawl, I thought I had some comfort with how the list should play.
My Lists
[Skarre 1] Pirate Queen Skarre [+28] - Black Industries
- Ripjaw [7]
- Stalker [8]
- Stalker [8]
- Stalker [8]
- Skarlock Thrall [0(4)]
Aiakos, Scourge of the Meredius [0(4)]
- Stalker [8]
- Stalker [8]
Darragh Wrathe [9]
Scrap Thrall (3) [2]
Soul Trapper [1]
Cephalyx Overlords [8]
Mechanithralls (min) [6]
- Brute Thrall (3) [0(6)]
Wraith Engine [15]
Wraith Engine [15]
[Skarre 3] Skarre, Admiral of the Black Fleet [+27] - Scourge of the Broken Coast
- Kraken [35]
- Satyxis Blood Priestess [4]
Axiara Wraithblade [0(6)]
General Gerlak Slaughterborn [0(6)]
Ragman [4]
Black Ogrun Ironmongers [6]
Blighted Trollkin Marauders (max) [15]
- Jussika Bloodtongue [5]
Bloodgorgers (max) [15]
Satyxis Blood Witches (max) [13]
- Satyxis Blood Hag [4]
Scharde Dirge Seers [0(6)]
The Bokur Brawl Team Event uses the WTC pairing system for teams. In this system, both teams roll a die to determine who gets to be Team A and who is Team B. After each pairing is determined, Team B gets to select which of the five tables that pairing will play on. Team A gets to have a little more control in selecting some of the matchups. To start the process, Team B nominates a single player for the first pairing. Team A gets to review that player's lists and nominates two players from their own team. Team B then selects one of those two players to play against their nomination. Team B then selects which table that first pairing will play on. This leaves the second player Team A nominated without an opponent. Team B then nominates two of their own players to potentially play against Team A's nomination. Team A then selects which of those two will play against their player and Team B selects the table that pair will play on. This continues until all pairs have been selected. Team A effectively gets to choose the final two matchups, which means Team A gets to select three of the matchups and Team B gets to select two. I know this sounds a bit confusing when written out, but once you go through the process once it all makes sense.
Round one paired us against Judgement Knights of Thunder. I really wish I could give a complete breakdown of the pairing process, but for the most part I just gave a thumbs up or thumbs down on each potential matchup and then got told who I was paired against. We won the die roll and chose to select tables. In general, we felt that being able to control which table each matchup played on was more valuable than getting a little more control over the matchups. This round, I was up against Steve Lopez, who was bringing retribution to the event. His lists were:
[Vyros 2] Vyros, Incissar of the Dawnguard [+27] - Forges of War
- Discordia [18]
- Griffon [8]
- Griffon [8]
- Griffon [8]
- Griffon [8]
- Griffon [8]
- Imperatus [20]
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker [4]
Arcanist Mechanik [2]
Arcanist Mechanik [2]
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios [0(7)]
House Shyeel Arcanists [0(7)]
House Shyeel Arcanists [0(7)]
Dawnguard Trident [16]
[Ravyn 1] Ravyn, the Eternal Light [+28] - Defenders of Ios
- Harpy [9]
- Harpy [9]
- Harpy [9]
- Harpy [9]
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker [0(4)]
Arcanist Mechanik [2]
Arcanist Mechanik [2]
Arcanist Mechanik [2]
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios [0(7)]
Ghost Sniper [0(3)]
Ghost Sniper [0(3)]
Heavy Rifle Team [4]
House Vyre Electromancers [7]
Arcantrik Force Generator [17]
Arcantrik Force Generator [17]
Dawnguard Trident [16]
I decided that Skarre1 was probably my drop for this. I don't have much experience into Vyros2, but I thought stalkers under feat would be a good match for the griffons and Ravyn doesn't have a way to deal with all the stealth in my list. The matchup was Skarre1 vs Ravyn and the scenario was invasion. Unfortunately, I failed to take any pictures during this event, so most of what is described will need to be from memory. I lost the die roll and Steve chose to go first. Steve moved up on top of one. On the bottom of one, I ran forward, keeping my stalkers out of range of being shot, but in range to threaten his pieces next turn. The wraith engines also moved forward aggressively. I knew he had a decent amount of magical shooting, but I was hoping he didn't have enough to actually kill one of them. Meanwhile, there was a building positioned overlapping the left circle zone and the center zone on my half of the table. Skarre and Aikos stood behind this building as it allowed all the stalkers and both wraith engines to be in Skarre's control for next turn.
Steve's turn two, he mostly stayed back and unloaded all the shots he could into one wraith engine. The wraith engine remained alive at the end of the turn. The bottom of turn two was my feat turn. Ambushing mechanithralls and a stalker killed the trident. The overlords ran into the right zone to score a control point. A couple harpies were destroyed. Another was tied up as a stalker chose to kill Eiryss instead of taking out another harpy. Skarre and Aikos remained behind the house. On the top of turn three, Steve had a difficult time dealing with the stalkers. He tried to take shots into them, but most of them were engaged and up to def 19 as a result. The wraith engines were effectively arm 25 against shooting, making them unappealing targets. He spent a good portion of his time trying to see if he could free up the harpy in the left zone to try and pull Skarre out from behind the house. Unfortunately for him, he was unable to accomplish this. His remaining battle engines stayed back behind the zones and he did not get anything into the right circle to contest. On the bottom of three, I only had a few models that needed to be destroyed to clear all three zones. I also destroyed his objective, scoring four and winning 6-0 on control. I think this game was a very rough matchup for Steve. I don't know how things change if he drops Vyros2 instead, but it's also possible his team threw him into me in order to try and get different matchups for the rest of the team. In the end, Team Meat was victorious, taking the round 4-1.
Round two saw Team Meat facing off against Upsetti Ceretti Spaghetti. During the pairing process, I had given skorne a general thumbs down for my matchups, as I didn't feel good about playing into Zaal2. However, in this round I didn't like my matchups into any of the pairings our opponents presented. I had never played infernals before, so I didn't know what to expect there. I knew about the other factions, but had almost no experience playing into any of them. Due to this, I offered to take skorne if no one else wanted to play into Zaal2. We won the die roll and again elected to choose tables. Due to this, I felt like I might have a chance. There was one table in the grouping that featured three buildings all located near the center of the board. While I would normally never want to play my Skarre1 list into Zaal2, I thought the large number of obstructions could potentially give me an edge. I was paired up against Grant Richey, who brought the following lists.
[Rasheth 1] Dominar Rasheth [+28] - Winds of Death
- Agonizer [6]
- Aradus Sentinel [14]
- Basilisk Krea [7]
- Aptimus Marketh [0(5)]
Extoller Novitiate [2]
Extoller Soulward [0(3)]
Extoller Soulward [0(3)]
Feralgeist [2]
Mortitheurge Willbreaker [0(4)]
Farrow Valkyries [8]
Paingiver Beast Handlers (min) [5]
Venator Slingers (min) [8]
Siege Animantarax [17]
Siege Animantarax [17]
Supreme Guardian [16]
[Zaal 2] Zaal, the Ancestral Advocate [+29] - The Exalted
- Agonizer [6]
- Mammoth [35]
Abidan the Keeper [0(5)]
Ancestral Guardian [0(5)]
Ancestral Guardian [5]
Extoller Novitiate [2]
Extoller Novitiate [2]
Extoller Soulward [3]
Hakaar the Destroyer [0(6)]
Immortal Vessel [3]
Immortals (max) [13]
- Extoller Advocate [3]
Immortals (max) [13]
- Extoller Advocate [3]
Supreme Guardian [16]
As expected, Grant chose to play Zaal2 into my Skarre1. The scenario was anarchy, and I hoped that I could use the buildings to turn the game into a fast scenario play, though I feared the turn that Zaal2 feated would be one where I got just about nothing done. I won the roll and chose to go second. This allowed me to chose the side where two buildings were closer, which would allow my stalkers to use them to hide behind. It also meant I would have the first chance to score. Anarchy is a live scenario, and I hoped going second would allow me to press scenario. In hindsight, it might have benefited me more to take the other side. Grant had two huge bases in his list and navigating both of them around two buildings could have really slowed his approach.
On the top of one, Grant ran everything forward. On the bottom of one, I ran the stalkers into hiding behind the houses. I also moved the wraith engines forward aggressively, just keeping out of charge ranges. I knew a single shot from any of his guns would not be able to remove one of them from the table, so I felt confident moving them up. On top of two, Grant positioned a few immortals in each zone, but held mostly back. I think his intent was to wait for my feat, then commit and use his own feat second. On the bottom of turn two, I realized that I had spread my wraith engines a little further out than I really wanted to. This meant I spent a long time measuring out a safe spot for Skarre to stand. She had to stand in the middle of the board, which meant there was only a cloud between her and the mammoth. I stood far enough back to be out of the mammoth's gun range and popped feat catching most of the stalkers, both wraith engines, Darragh Wrathe, Aikos and Skarre herself. I killed the immortals in each zone. The overlords scored one zone while the ambushing mechanithralls scored the other and Darragh Wrathe stood on my flag. I was pleased that I was up 3-0 on control and felt like I might be able to pull this game out on control.
It was at this point that Grant requested that I measure kill box, which is a rule that I frequently forget about because I tend to play my casters aggressively forward. Skarre was a couple inches behind the 12" line, as that was where she had to stand in order to not be in range for the mammoth to shoot her. Speaking with Grant later, he thought in the middle of all my measuring I had either intentionally given up the two points or had found a spot that was not within 12" of the board edge. Turns out I made a mistake and now was only up 3-2, which was much less of a comfortable position. Had I remembered about kill box, I might have chosen to stand there anyway, but it's a very different situation between actively choosing to kill box yourself and accidentally doing it.
On the top of three, Grant chose to leave my wraith engines alone as he didn't want to deal with them under Skarre's feat. Instead he went after other models on the table. He also popped Zaal's feat, which meant I was going to have a hard time clearing anything on my next turn. The top and bottom of three passed without either of us scoring anything. Grant's supreme guardian was on the left flank and he started clearing that zone and scoring it on turn four. I am going to have a hard time recalling a round by round recounting from here on, but Grant started scoring the left zone and contesting my flag. I was clearing the right zone and contested his flag while the wraith engine on that side lived, but that wraith engine was destroyed on turn four or five and he started scoring his flag also. The right zone was an unusual situation. The mammoth had been sent up the middle of the table and there were two buildings around Grant's flag, which prevented the mammoth from getting into that zone. This meant the right zone was a pure battle of attrition between one stalker and the unit of overlords and a unit of immortals backed up by an ancestral guardian. Eventually, Grant was able to flip the score and the game went to 7 rounds, with Grant winning 8-7.
The only reason I had a game was because of all the terrain on the table. It appeared that in every grouping of 5 tables, there was one table with lots of line of sight blocking terrain, one that was very open and the other three were fairly balanced. Getting to chose the terrain heavy table really affected this matchup. A more open table allows Grant's huge bases to move more freely and I think I have to drop Skarre3 and hope I can grind it out. I was quite disappointed by giving up the unintentional killbox points and talked to Grant after the game about whether he would have gone after Skarre. He had used the mammoth's full battery fire already and I didn't feel great about putting Skarre out as a target. On feat turn, it's straight dice and I think she was sitting on 9 boxes after taking damage for her feat and spending some focus to heal back up. Due to the focus Skarre was camping, I was going to be effectively arm 25, but I was still worried he could just spike a dice roll and end the game right there. Grant told me he probably wouldn't have gone for it. He needed a solid damage roll spike and that would be after needing a boosted 11 to hit. The percentage was low and without using the mammoth in the attrition / scenario game he might not be able to take the lead by round 7. It was a great thing to talk through and something I should probably consider in the future (along with remembering that kill box is a rule). Thankfully, my teammates carried me through this round and Team Meat won 3-2.
The final round of day one paired Team Meat against Mid-Atlantic Mollywhoppers - What's Your Sloan Drop? Once again, when looking at the potential matchups I either felt disadvantaged or didn't know what to make of each one. I ended up offering to take whatever game no one else felt good about. I believe we again won the die roll and chose to select tables (though I am not certain about this one). I ended up being informed that I was playing into circle, piloted by Michael Stone, who had won the Warfaire Weekend Qualifier the previous day. Michael had the following lists.
[Krueger 2] Krueger the Stormlord [+27] - Bones of Orboros
- Megalith [20]
- Woldwarden [14]
- Woldwarden [14]
- Woldwarden [14]
- Woldwyrd [9]
- Woldwyrd [9]
Blackclad Stoneshaper [0(3)]
Blackclad Stoneshaper [0(3)]
Gallows Grove [2]
Hermit of Henge Hold [5]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [0(5)]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Shifting Stones [0(3)]
Shifting Stones [0(3)]
Well of Orboros [10]
[Iona 1] Iona the Unseen [+28] - The Devourer's Host
- Storm Raptor [34]
Gallows Grove [2]
Hermit of Henge Hold [5]
Lord of the Feast [0(6)]
Tharn Ravager Shaman [4]
Tharn Wolf Rider Champion [0(7)]
Boil Master & Spirit Cauldron [5]
Tharn Bloodweavers [8]
Tharn Ravagers (max) [15]
- Tharn Ravager Chieftain [0(5)]
Tharn Ravagers (max) [15]
- Tharn Ravager Chieftain [5]
Well of Orboros [10]
Michael is a great player and I was very concerned about a matchup into devourer's host. While my stalkers all have grievous wounds, I knew that he could space out enough to allow each stalker to get probably one, maybe two ravagers. I also knew the storm raptor would be able to shoot down the stalkers pretty casually and I thought it could also reasonably threaten my wraith engines, though it would probably take two rounds of shooting to bring one down. That said, I felt even worse about trying to play Skarre3 into the matchup. Ravagers can pretty casually kill the trolls and I would have needed to rely on tough checks to stop them from using mini feat to rip through full units at a time. The matchup ended up being Iona vs Skarre1 and the scenario was bunkers. Michael won the die roll and chose to go first.
On the top of one, Michael pushed everything up a little, but kept outside of my stalker's threat ranges. On the bottom of one, I started asking questions about things like how he could hand out eyeless sight or magic weapons. I forgot the ravager shaman could give any model/unit magic weapons and he took the objective to give out eyeless sight. Due to this, I kept my stalkers outside of his storm raptor's 21" threat. This meant I gave up quite a bit of scenario positioning. The top of two featured Michael pushing forward a little more to get into contesting range on the flags, while keeping the majority of his force safe. Bottom of two I held off on my ambush. I feated and positioned to use my feat defensively (I didn't think I needed the strength side to kill his stuff). We each scored our zones. Top of three, Michael came in and did a decent amount of damage. I think he cleared off and scored two flags and we each scored our own zones (2-4). The bottom of three I ambushed and used the brute thralls to kill his wolf rider on the left flag and I worked to get stuff contesting the other flags, but he had a decent attrition advantage by now. We each scored our own zone (3-5). On the top of four, he scored on all the flags and his own zone, while contesting mine. Michael won 3-9. This round Team Meat picked up our first loss, going down 1-4 in the round.
After the game we talked and he pointed out that on the bottom of one I was very conservative with my stalkers because I was worried about his storm raptor killing them. However, the storm raptor was not close enough to the objective to get eyeless sight, so I could have been much more aggressive with them. Because I kept everything farther back, he was able to press me on scenario early. It was probably a case where my best play would have been to position more aggressively on bottom of one and use bottom of two to feat and jam him out, sacrificing the stalkers to prevent him from getting to the flags. It's much easier to type that out than it would have been to attempt it on the table. I am also very uncomfortable with that kind of strategy, as I would have been trading my stalkers and wraith engines (the pieces that do all the work in this list) for victory points while getting little to nothing out of them in attrition. That said, it was likely my best path to victory in this matchup.
This concluded day one of the Team Event. After the round was done, I ended up having far more to drink than advisable for someone like me (I never have more than 1-2 drinks in a night). At some point that evening we discovered that our round four matchup was against Midatlantic Mollywhoppers - Pact with the Devil. This team featured a few players from the Mark Howard Dojo and they were exchanging messages with us the next morning. Long story short, they delayed the start of round four in order for us to get there in time and we were still late, incurring a 10 minute penalty on all our clocks.
Unfortunately, I was in almost no shape to play this game and I recall nothing of the pairing process. I feel like I need to apologize to my opponent, Julian Lesage, as he pretty much just put models on the table and then won the game. Julian's lists were as follows.
[Grim 1] Grim Angus [+29] - Kriel Company
- Earthborn Dire Troll [14]
- Mountain King [36]
- Trollkin Runebearer [0(5)]
Boomhowler, Solo Artist [0(6)]
Fell Caller Hero [0(5)]
Swamp Gobber Chef [1]
Troll Whelps [4]
Croak Raiders (max) [16]
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (min) [6]
Northkin Raiders (min) [9]
Hearthgut Hooch Hauler [18]
[Kolgrima 1] Kolgrima Stonetruth, Winter Witch [+28] - Storm of the North
- Dire Troll Bomber [19]
- Pyre Troll [8]
- Winter Troll [8]
- Trollkin Runebearer [0(5)]
Boomhowler, Solo Artist [0(6)]
Fell Caller Hero [0(5)]
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (min) [6]
- Northkin Elder [3]
Northkin Bear Handlers & Battle Bears [10]
Northkin Bear Handlers & Battle Bears [10]
Northkin Fire Eaters [7]
Northkin Fire Eaters [7]
Trollkin Champions (max) [16]
- Skaldi Bonehammer [5]
- Trollkin Sorcerer (1) [3]
I ended up choosing to play Skarre1 for two reasons. First, I was going against trolls and I wanted the grievous wounds that all the stalkers were bringing. Second, I was not prepared to play the grinding kind of game that Skarre3 inevitably gets into. Even when Skarre3 is advantaged, the game just grinds on turn after turn and in my state that morning, I was simply looking to either win or lose quickly. Ideally, I was hoping to out threat him and try for a scenario win by turn 3. The matchup was Kolgrima vs Skarre1. I lost the die roll and Julian chose to go first. The scenario was spread the net.
Julian ran up on the top of one, keeping outside of the stalker's threat ranges. On the bottom of one, I realized that he could threaten much farther than I expected with the fire eaters. I was super concerned about losing a stalker to an assault spray and held back. I ran Aikos to the left flank and tried to position to be somewhat relevant. On the top of two, Julian ambushed in his bears and killed Aikos. This was effectively the end of the game. I couldn't recover from basically losing two stalkers prior to my feat. I tried to fight back as best I could, but Julian pressed his advantage and won on scenario 1-6. I apologize that I cannot remember much else from this game, but after Aikos died there wasn't much of a game to be played. I would like to think that if I was in better shape, I might have remembered that he had an ambushing unit, but I cannot say for sure. That said, he was a great opponent and I feel badly that I don't have more to say about this game.
Between rounds four and five, I made the decision to head home. I felt very bad about leaving someone in round five without a game to play, but as my teammate Mark pointed out, could I really say that a game was played the previous round? Everyone agreed that I needed to head out. I still feel very poorly about needing to abandon the team round five and leaving someone on the opposing team without a game to play. I fully intend to come back next year, but I have learned my lesson. I will happily stay up super late with people, play board games and hang out. However, I will not attempt to keep up with others when it comes time to drink.
Some final thoughts on the weekend and my lists. First, I went into both events expecting to rely heavily on Skarre3. Instead, I played Skarre3 once all weekend. While Skarre3 is still a solid generalist caster, she doesn't pressure your opponent the same way the other lists do. She says that the game is going to be a long grind and asks if your opponent can handle that type of game. Both versions of the Skarre1 list I brought are explosive lists that attempt to heavily pressure the opponent on scenario. I did find it interesting that I generally wanted to go second so I could get the first opportunity to score and my opponents universally wanted to go first so they wouldn't get pressured off scenario elements before scoring even began. I am finding that after playing long grinding games for the last 18 months, playing a more explosive game where scenario is almost always live is a very enjoyable change of pace.
One tendency I noticed was for my opponents to measure a direct path from my stalkers when trying to find threat ranges. This was also true when the stalker was hiding behind a house or other obstruction. Due to this, I was frequently given more board space than I could actually threaten. I know in a timed game you don't want to burn a lot of clock trying to find the exact threat range when taking the house into account, but I really felt like it gave me an advantage. I also noted that turn 2 was just about always feat turn for Skarre1 (this could change based on your opponent feating or if you end up going first rather than second). On a related note, I also noticed that while I always wanted to go second for first chance at scoring, my opponents always seemed to want to go first so they wouldn't be bullied off the board by stalkers. It does make me wonder if going first with the list to basically try and jam my opponent on scenario is viable.
While the armies are fairly low model count, I was frequently taking 20-30 minutes on my turn two in order to get everything into feat / dark guidance range and get the most out of all my activations. Again, this was a change from Skarre3 where I always had to be conscious of moving quickly on my clock due to the volume of models that needed to be activated every turn.
While I enjoyed both versions of the Skarre1 list, ultimately I think I enjoyed the version in scourge that runs eight stalkers more than the black industries version. Part of this could be that it just feels odd to run a black industries list without any heavies (which effectively means you are giving up one theme benefit). I am considering actually picking up the extra stalkers required in order to run it in my local meta (I borrowed four in order to run the list at the Bokur Brawl). The wraith engines are definitely good with Skarre and bring models that require another answer from your opponent, but the sheer threat projection from eight stalkers leads to your opponent burning a lot of time trying to find safe places while still meaningfully contesting scenario.
That wraps up my thoughts on the Bokur Brawl. I will once again say that the event was fantastic and I cannot overstate how well run I thought it was. Locally, we are now in an exciting period. The Bokur Brawl is done and we don't have another scrum until January. I expect to see some crazy experimentation over the next few months as we start to really explore the possibilities brought to us by the Oblivion changes. I have a Goreshade1 list I want to try out (though it's probably just a worse version of the Skarre1 stalker lists) and I really want to explore Coven and a couple other casters. I will be back to my usual battle reports with my next post. Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I hope it was enjoyable.
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