Yesterday Stu, one of our local Press Gangers, ran a 35pt two list Steamroller 2011 tournament held in Gamers World, Dublin. The tournament attracted 11 players and I went along with my Legion of Everblight. Saeryn led one list and Thagrosh the other, though I only really had practice with the Saeryn army. Here’s a quick run down of the tournament.

Game 1 – Skorne (Harry)

Harry lives in the same town as me, so we get to play quite a bit and one of the practice games I had in the lead up to the tournament was against him. We played the ‘Process of Elimination’ scenario. Harry used pMakeda and opted for my Saeryn list. I played much more aggressively than I had in our practice games, but resisted the temptation to kill any of Harry’s infantry on his feat turn (I’ve learned that lesson!). I used the Warmongers and Gobbers to screen Saeryn and pushed the beasts forward as a feat-protected meat shield to hold most of Harry’s force in place. This really put Harry on the back foot and once I’d taken out one of his two heavies things didn’t look good for him. I managed to get the warlock kill and secure my second Control Point in my final turn. It was a good game, but Harry’s dice luck was atrocious (again!).

Game 2 – Protectorate of Menoth (Pádraic)

I think the picture tells the story of this game. Pádraic had a by in the first round and brought pKreoss. I opted for my Thagrosh list, which was a mistake as I had no practice with it. Anyway, he pushed a full unit of Zealots under Greater Destiny up into my half of the board and then proceeded to ‘Pop and Drop’ Thagrosh with lots of fire bombs. Ouch! The less said about that the better. It did mean we could break early for lunch and found a really nice Chinese restaurant nearby!

Game 3 – Skorne (Spencer)

I’ve only played Spencer a couple of times before and like all of the other guys I played he’s a great opponent. I’ve fought his Cygnar before, but this was the first time playing against his Skorne. He had pMorghoul and the Molik Karn bullet. Learning from my mistake of the last game I went back to my Saeryn list. The scenario was ‘Capture the Flag’, but I really didn’t fancy having to get through the whole Skorne army to get near my flag. I feinted to the right to make it look like I was making a play for the flag and then swung back to protect my flag, making the Skorne come to me. Molik charged from an impossible distance to kill my Angelius, only for me to Respawn it! Spencer didn’t realise Respawn was within 3″. The Angelius tore Molik apart in retaliation. On my left Spencer’s Totem Hunter systematically tore through my Warmongers, killing each and every one during the game. In turn 3 I saw an opportunity to seize a Control Point with the Angelius and went for it. It ran forward and I cast Blight Bringer onto it to clear the infantry (Paingivers) around the flag. Morghoul finished off the Angelius and then sprinted into a location near Saeryn. Saeryn chucked a Thrown Spur at him for 11 damage (which couldn’t be transferred due to Grievous Wounds). The Ravagore finished things off (in Melee!). That was probably the closest fought of my games.

In the end I picked up second place (on strength of schedule) and Kommander Harkevich as a prize. Ciaran (another local PG) took the win and Anthony (another regular opponent) came third. I really enjoy the SR2011 format and Warmachine/Hordes lends itself to competitive play as the rules are very tight. Big thanks to Stu for running such an excellent tournament (despite his laptop crashing half way through!). Fun way to spend Father’s Day…

(I’m the goofy looking one in the blue and white striped shirt!)

Owen