Pigs in blankets

Hi folks,

This post is about my last tournament of 2016: “Pigs in blankets” (aka #Pigfaux2), held at Sanctuary, and run by that lovely Ross Clarke.

I was in a Marcussy mood, so my crew for every game included:

Marcus

Myranda

Cassandra (feel free to judge me, but she was mainly there because I needed a “tank” and had nothing else!)

Cerberus (yes, a not-summoned Cerberus)

Razorspine Rattler

With the final few models (and upgrades) tweaked accordingly.

Round 1
Close deployment
Reckoning
Leave your mark
Show of force (me)
Covert breakthrough (Owen)
A quick murder (Owen and me)

First up I was against Owen, who is very new to the game (I think this was his game 4 or 5), and his thematic construct Hoffman crew. We both spread across the board fairly evenly, with our “strong” flanks facing each other. The game came down to a slogging match between Marcus and a Peacekeeper, with Marcus struggling to get through its armour (or to hit it once it was in a power-loop with a guardian) and Hoffman’s healing, and the peacekeeper repeatedly being made into a beast (on –ve to duels) so that it couldn’t hit Marcus.

On the left Marcus mixes it up with the peacekeeper and Hoffman, while in the centre and right the Rattlers, Cassandra, and Cerberus set about two hunters and a watcher… which might already be dead at this point…

Eventually my Cerberus tipped the balance, scoring me 2 points for Quick Murder. Somehow the Cerberus then survived Hoffman’s retaliation and ran away. Meanwhile a pair of Razorspines and the Myranda-Cerberus dealt with the rest of Owen’s crew, and Cassandra stood in the middle of the board to score Show of Force each turn. The game ended at the end of turn 4, as a 6-0 win to me, thanks to most of my models being horrendously injured, but somehow still alive.

Round 2
Flank deployment
Turf war
Hunting party
Show of force (me)
Neutralise the leader (Alex)
Mark for death (me) (sorry, I don’t remember Alex’s other scheme)

In game 2, I found myself playing against Alex… who had travelled up with Owen, and was fairly new to the game himself. He had a very thematic Rasputina crew. Normally Raspy is a nightmare for me to deal with due to her blasts (I have no armour or sneaky defensive tricks), but unfortunately Alex didn’t equip her with Armour of December or Sub Zero. What followed could only be described as a massacre. At the end of Turn 2, Alex had Rasputina and 2 ice gamin left alive, engaged in melee with various nasty things, I had literally my whole crew. I totally forgot that neutralise the leader was in the scheme pool, and Alex managed to score a point by reducing Marcus to half wounds, but sadly Marcus on half wounds is still fairly dangerous, and the game ended in turn 3, a 10-1 win to me, as Rasputina fell (literally surrounded by Marcus, Johan, Cassandra, and 2 Cerberuses…).

At this point the kill tally is Snowstorm, the Ice Golem, the Blessed of December, an Ice Gamin, and the Wendigo…. anyway, in the center Johan and Cassandra finish off an ice gamin, while Marcus ties up (and steadily beats to death) Raspy and an Ice Gamin, and the two Cerberuses set up a crossfire of verbal abuse before eviscerating Raspy. Meanwhile the Rattler (bottom) and Jackalope (far far left bottom, hidden behind a building) avoid a possible hunting party.

Round 3
Corner deployment
Reconnoiter
Exhaust their forces
Hunting party (me)
Covert breakthrough (Alessandro)
A quick murder (Alessandro and me)

For the final game I was up against Alessandro, and his Neverborn Jacob Lynch crew, made entirely of 7ss minions. It was an awful combination of a strategy for which you want lots of cheap models, and schemes for which you want a few big models. I think I let hunting party dictate my crew selection too much, and should have taken a second moleman and a night terror instead of a December Acolyte, but I think this was my first mistake of the tournament, so I’ll call that acceptable losses.

I foolishly threw my Cerberus out to kill an Illuminated (even though I’d taken a Quick Murder, I forgot it was in the pool!), getting me a point for hunting party, and handing Alessandro 3 for Quick Murder. Fresh from pulping a Silurid in the middle of the board, Marcus trotted off and casually smashed the Illuminated I’d taken a Quick Murder on, before wandering off to melee expert a beckoner too. Unfortunately Huggy then used his obey (or whatever it is) to make Marcus walk away, and with no beasts nearby, beat him into the ground.

Photography fail. in the top right Marcus (fresh from whomping a Silurid and Illuminated) occupies The Hungering Darkness while attacking a beckoner. In the bottom left and top left, Cassandra, a Cerberus, a Rattler, and a moleman hold my quarters (I made the stupid mistake of thinking I needed 2 models in the quarter to hold it…. idiot)

With my Myranda-cerberus and Cassandra defending my deployment zone, Alessandro found it very difficult to achieve breakthrough, managing to get 1 marker down (which I could do nothing about) before his Silurid got shredded by the Myranda-Cerberus. In the end, I’d scored 2 for hunting party, Alessandro had only scored 1 for breakthrough, but with one more model than me, he could balance out table quarters so that he had 2, and I didn’t, and the game ended a very close, very well fought, 8-8 draw.

After the dust settled, I was on 2 wins, a draw, and +15vp diff, which miraculously saw me come second in the tournament! This is far and away my best result at a tournament (my previous best being 8^th place…. using the Perdita starter box), and my first every podium, so I was well chuffed with that. Not only that, but I also got (joint 4-ways) best sports, and not only that(!) but somehow, I think because everyone was overcome with Christmas cheer, my Kaeris won best painted (for which we just entered a single master model)!

An old pic, I know, but here is my (now “award winning”) Kaeris

Turns out the end of 2016 has been a pretty good time for me in tournaments, and I do think my game playing has improved significantly (even if I did decide that in the first 2 games of today my best option was to play it thoroughly like beatdown, and just kill everything asap). So who knows what the future holds… probably a short sharp fall from grace, but you never know.

My next tournament(s) will be the masters side events in January, which I’m massively looking forward to. With my recent run of good showings at tournaments, I have two very different plans for the masters side events, but more on that later.

Until next time

Dave/sssk