Clogcon 2017 Day 2 Game 3: Ossrum vs Coven

For game 3, I am again facing Cryx. This time, it's Tim Bossuyt with the standard Denny 1 ghost fleet and Coven dark host.

I decide to finally drop my intended Cryx drop, and choose Ossrum. Tim chooses Dark Host.

His list:

Dark Host
Coven
- 2 Deathrippers
- Desecrator
Wraith Engine
Free Tartarus
2 x Max Bane Riders
2 x Max Bane Warriors with Free UA-s

I get first turn and rush forward. Snipe goes on Avalancher and FFE on Siege Crawler. My solos consolidate on the right flank.

Tim rushes everything ahead and feats. I start measuring possible assassination vectors.

Assassination attempt goes this way: I feat and energize. Gun bunnies run ahead where they can be spray targets for spray bunnies. The whole thing fails at first, with all my rolls at Egregor yielding no result. And then a serious stroke of luck happens, which more than compensates the previous bad rolls: one of the spray bunnies on the right flank rolls exceptionally high damage on the one which that they both were spraying, dealing more than 13 damage (which means that she dies even despite focus). The rest of my army stays farely conservatively back.

Banes charge in and destroy all bunnies they can get to. The only bunnies left are the two gun bunnies that were blocked in by my spray bunnies on the left. Fortunately, they are not engaged.

I see that attrition can not go anywhere, so I continue the assassination plan. Siege crawler charges some bane and after resolving the charge attack removes stealth from Egregor and does the FFE AOE4 shot. Defense is only 17, so I manage to hit. The damage takes out one witch, and the AOE damage roll takes some boxes from the other. Then one bunny walks up and shoots egregor, killing the last remaining witch and winning me the game.

Analysis

I honestly don't know how to play an actual game against Dark Host. They hit like a ton of bricks, and they will get the alpha due to Coven's feat. This Ossrum's army should lose in the match up every time, unless an assassination possibility presents itself. I will need to make a different Cryx drop, and I don't even imagine where to start.

Clogcon 2017 Day 2 Game 2: Damiano vs Denny 2

For my second game, I was again facing Cryx, this time led by Raul Segado.

Looking at the lists, I saw that only the ghost fleet one has a wraith engine. I see also that third list in Black Industries is virtually impossible for Ossrum to take on. I decide to go for Damiano. Raul chooses Ghost Fleet, and I think that I'm certainly going to lose. I didn't even realize at the moment that this is a Denny2 ghost fleet, not Denny1.

Raul's list:

Ghost Fleet
Denny 2
- 4 Death Rippers
Wraith Engine
Free Rengrave
Free Hellslinger
Free Pistol Wraith
Max Blackbanes
3 min crews + 8 rifles

For my objective, I choose the one that gives magical weapons. I am hoping that this will allow one of my manglers to make one attack on the Wraith Engine, which will finish it (Kell needs to soften it up first).

I got the first turn. Since I can not see initially where his pieces will be, I deploy simmetrically. Raul deploys the Wraith Engine on my right and the Blackbanes on my left.

I put up sure foot on the trenchers and Road to War on Damiano and run up. Since I still think that I am playing agains Denny 1, I do not take enough care with spacing my models against hellmouth or keeping Orin near there.

The halberdiers on my right are intentionally left a bit back, because I dont want them being destroyed near a wraith engine. The left halberdiers are starting to move to the right, without being too obvious about it. The thing is, I don't want them to be turned into Blackbanes, and I intend to tie up and contest the left zone with my jacks instead (Nomad and Mangler).

I didn't make a photo of Raul's first turn, but he arcs a hellmouth on one of my trenchers and destroys 7 trenchers and Kell Bailoch. Very efficient (and I fail all tough rolls).

The Wraith engine stays really far to the right, while blackbanes rush ahead into the left zone.

I partially charge but mainly run with my right halberdiers. Red mangler positions in the rubble ready to attack the wraith engine if it comes near. I am OK to have trenchers close to Blackbanes (because of DEF15), and I also contest the left zone with a nomad (too high armor for Blackbanes). Left halberdires finish repositioning into the center, ready to jam. Orin stays close to my two jacks on the right flank, and he has stealth on. Damiano is knocked down my my bucaneer.

Wraith engine backs off and one halberdier is turned into a machine wraith. To my relief, the machine wraith doesn't manage to hit my mangler (I actually left it in the Rubble partly because I don't want it going to far after being hit by a machine wraith; and I can always reposition for a charge with Road to War). Most of the right unit of halberdiers is destroyed. The Blackbanes go in but don't do any significant damage to jacks. They manage to kill one trencher. Four of them are now corporeal.

Time to feat. On the left side, I kill the machine wraith and I kill enough pirates (with Orin's chain lightning) to be able to kill Rengrave, who was blocking my blue Nomad. The nomad engages an arc node, while halberds go jamming. On the left, my Nomad kills the objective. All corporeal blackbanes are dead.

Since this is my feat turn, Raul isn't able to do any serious damage to me. Blackbanes don't bother attacking, and instead run towards Damiano.

Damiano and Orin use their magical attacks (Damiano makes his AOE3), and kill all but two blackbanes. Red Mangler kills the Pistol Wraith. I continue grinding in the middle and reposition the green Mangler there, too. I actually manage to clear my zone, so score becomes 2-0 in my favor. Also, by this turn I have acquired a noticeable clock advantage.

Wraith engine charges my red mangler and kills it (possibly with some help from pirates, I don't remember). More pirates flood my zone. Trenchers are finally killed. I only have two halberdiers remaining. Nomad on the left flank refuses to die. Raul is down to around 5 or 7 minutes while I have around 20.

I charge the wraigh engine with my green Mangler, with extra two focus from Damiano. Unfortunately, the engine lives (on something like 2-3 boxes; dice happen). Orin finishes blackbanes. Bucaneer blocks LOS from Wraith Engine to Damiano.

Again, I forgot to make a photo after Raul's turn, but he is trying to kill Damiano. Because the wraith engine can't see Damiano, he instead charges Orin (and kills him), and only the second attack goes into Damiano, leaving him on 8 boxes. In the end of the turn, there are 9 seconds on his clock.

Mangler turns around and finishes wraith Engine. Damiano runs away to the edge of kill box. I am careless and I leave a path for an arc node to run. No photo on my turn end.

On his turn, raul runs the arc node and arcs couple of spells onto Damiano. It's a rush, so when he tells me to make my free strike, I make one without even understanding what is happening (it was a miss), and he proceeds to roll hit and damage, killing Damiano precisely, to the box. I point out that there are supposed to be two free strikes, because the node ran past two halberdiers. We do make the free strike, and it takes out the Arc Node system. Which means, there was no arcing here, and Damiano actually lived.

This was a very fun game to play, and with an extremely cool ending. The second most enjoyable game of the whole event for me (#1 goes to last game of day 3).

I have two lessons from here:

1. Read the opponent's cards before the game. Just assuming that this is the list you have already played against is a bad idea. I only realized that it's Denny 2 in Raul's first turn when he killed Kell.
2. When you have the clock lead, do use the time you have to think calmly. We resolved the end game situation like gentlemen, but if my opponent had been a nitpick, he could have told me that it's actually my responsibility to resolve free strikes etc. Also, the situation wouldn't even have arisen, if I had used enough time on my previous turn to simply block all arc node running directions.

Clogcon 2017 Day 2 Game 1: Damiano vs Denny 1

On day 2 of Clogcon, I participated in the Steamroller White, which gave one spot for the invitational.

As my first opponent, I got Marius Larsen with Cryx. What I noticed right off the bat is that the lists were unconventional, and there was no wraith engine there. Now, my Cryx drop is Ossrum and not Damiano - because Damiano doesn't have magical weapons to deal with the Wraith Engine. Ossrum, though, will not be able to deal with the high armor of the Black Industries.

I thought a bit and decided to go with Damiano. No wraith engine on the table makes it playable.

My opponent chose Denny:

Scourge of the Broken Coast
Denny 1
- 2 deathrippers
- 2 stalkers
Ragman
10 Blood witches + hag
2 x 10 Raiders + Sea Witch
Gunslingers
Max Croe's cutthroats

I hoped to get the first turn, but there was no such luck. With this scenario, turn 1 would have been preferable to claim a lot of territory and start scoring my flag. However, with turn 2 the plan will most likely involve dead eye and some shooting.

Satyxis run very aggressively all over the board. One surprising thing for me is the group of gunslingers behind he hill. As my opponent later told, he made the mistake here by confusing it with a wood. Notable is the fact that stalkers are placed very conservatively, so there will be no walking up and shooting them.

I decide to go with the first idea: surefoot and deadeye on trenchers, after which they drop the smoke screen and go assaulting forward, taking out two gunslingers and some croes and satyxis. Halberds advance in a layered defensive formation, where the first row makes it difficult to reach the second row. Damiano stays behind the screen, Kell benefits from stealth, Orin hides behind the clouds and advances towards my flag.

On the right flank, croes shoot off some halberdiers, creating lanes of charging for Satyxis. Both the halberdiers and the trenchers here suffer heavy casualties. The left flank is attacked by ambushing Blood Witches. I am very happy to see that the stalkers back away. One very important thing here: there are 23 minutes on my opponent's clock after this turn and 40 on mine. I understand that long-term attrition advantage is probably not with me, so going for clock victory is what I need. To force that, I will need to get a slight advantage on points too.

I feat (for armor mainly) and use my road to war to get jacks into places where they'd otherwise be hard pressed to get (one Nomad gets to an arc node that thought it was safe behind the wood, using the Pathfinder from the objective and the road to war). I manage to destroy a big chunk of croes, as well as satyxis. Orin is a star here with the boosted chain lightning, claiming the flag. The left flank is playing the delaying game, killing a few satyxis but mainly just trying to avoid dying too easily.

Denny feats in response but does not manage to do any serious damage to my jacks because of the high feat armor (ragman is out of position, and is used simply for scoring a point). Points go to 1-1 but I think I am ahead with my plan.

I keep grinding, using small trick such as Damiano's blast shot and Orin's chain lightning to rack up the kill count; I also finish the arc node. We both score points this turn, but the clock is really tight now for my opponent. I am up one point, because I also killed the objective. Even without points advantage, I see that I will either clock him or get really short inefficient turns from him, which will enable me to improve attrition a lot.

Some more killing happens from Denny's side, but mainly only infantry suffers - my armor still protects me. He gets ahead on points, since he contests my flag, while I don't contest his zone or his flag.

I finish the right flank and the center, run away with Damiano and contest the opposing flank and zone with a mangler and a bucaneer. Score becomes 1 in my favor, but from now on I will be scoring two per turn (zone and flag). My opponent does not have enough time on his clock to kill the mangler and I win.

Clogcon 2017 Day 1 Game 4: Ossrum vs Doomshaper 3

For my fourth and last game of the day (the tournament was cutting to Final table after it), I was facing Aymeric Prie with Trollbloods.

I remember that I had faced trollbloods on several occasions, and I had some very one-sided games with Ossrum, killing the enemy casters. I also had quite a few games with Damiano, although in one of the last ones, I felt that attrition was not on my side (although that was partly due to my own mistakes).

Looking through Aymeric's lists, I noticed that only one has an Earthborn. To me, that meant that casters are vulnerable to assassinaion. So I decided to go with Ossrum. As I will find out during the game, this is a wrong choice. The problem is that I didn't remember that Doomy 3 has the spell Implacability, which makes the whole battlegroup immune to pushing and knock downs.

The scenario favors going second. I won the roll off and chose to go second. The bulk of my force is skewed to the right (my flag), while the left flank is anchored by the Siege Crawler.

Trolls rush forward.

I advance cautiously and make a few potshots. I make sure to keep my bunnies out of charge ranges of the trolls. I still don't remember abot implacability, so simply getting engaged seems like no big deal to me. I also get Aiyana up a lot, to Kiss some good target nex turn.

Earthborn runs to engage me, and implacabitlity is cast. This is when I find out that I chose the wrong list for this battle. The rest of the trolls advance into range for the charges next turn.

I Kiss the Earthborn, and then take him to low hit points with shooting. Ossrum feats and charges in and finishes him. Then the Battle Engine charges Mulg (which moved closer with admonition). Some shots are fired at the mauler. I recognize that the attrition is severely lacking. I score one point.

Doomy feats. Mulg uses the Fury6 trick and kills the crawler. Eiryss, Kell and Alten are killed with thrown bunnies. Trolls score two points.

I know that my next turn will have no attition (I might actually heal up the trolls more if I shoot). After that I am going to lose avalancher and 2-3 bunnies, and probably also Aiyana and Holt, while also losing points. I see no point to drag this on and concede.

Analysis

Here, my mistake is very simple: I chose the wrong list. This Ossrum list is pretty dependent on Bulldoze to unjam, and where it's negated his attrition gets hampered severely. Moreover, Ossrum's feat does nothing to help against Doomy's feat, unlike for example Damiano. And lastly, the nature of attrition in this list is such that most attacks will do only a little bit of damage - which is very bad against Doomy 3-s feat.

Clogcon 2017 Day 1 Game 3: Ossrum vs Grayle

Since I lost my previous game, I was not competing for a place in the invitational any more, so felt more relaxed.

My next opponent was Martina Haug with Circle.
I noted immediately that her lists aren't typical, and it turns out that her favourite caster is Grayle.

Despite the fact that she didn't have Baldur 2 or Morvahnna's infantry hate army, I decided to go with Ossrum. It just feels like he can do some awesome assassinations here.

Martina went with her Grayle army:

Wild Hunt
Grayle
- Pureblood
- Feral
Morraig
3 x max Wolves with free UA
5 Skinwalkers + Alpha
Death Wolves

I looked at the table and decided that my game plan would be assassination. I won the roll off and chose to go first.

On my turn 1, I ran everything forward and place FFE on one artillery.
I didn't make a photo after Martina's first turn, but she got Grayle into the trench with some other models nearby. Seeing the distances, I decide to go for the assassination.

The plan is simple: Feat, cast unstoppable force and charge Ossrum forward to where he will project the bulldoze zone almost to Grayle. Then, run a bunny to bulldoze models around and get one wolf within 4" AOE blast distance of Grayle. Then, boost a shot at the wolf with the avalancher to knock Grayle down. Finally, remove stealth and kill him with gunbunnies. Possibly first stripping fury with Eiryss 1.

The plan broke down when I failed to roll a boosted 8 on the Avalancher's shot.

Martina comes at me and is able to do some attrition but she can't kill the battle engine because of my feat and can't get to Ossrum. Next turn, I simply rinse and repeat (of course needed some clusterfuck-solving skills here). This time, I am successful with the knock down shot, and Grayle goes down.

Analysis

Nothing much to say here. I am sure that this match up is playable on attrition no problem. The bunnies should be able to remove this infantry very efficiently. I simply chose the simpler assassination option.

Clogcon 2017 Day 1 Game 2: Ossrum vs Deneghra 1

In the next game, I am facing Gerard Jean-Vincent with Cryx, the usual suspect lists. My choice is Ossrum, while Gerard takes Denny Ghost fleet.

The list is:

Ghost Fleet
Denny 1
- 2 Death Rippers
- 2 Stalkers
Wraith Engine
Free rengrave, Caine and Pistol Wraith
3 min crews with 8 rifles
Max Blackbanes

Unfortunately, he wins the roll and Denny gets first turn. A least, this allows me to deploy the Crawler opposite the Wraith Engine.

He runs things up, getting them really in my face.

I feat and advance too, put snipe on the Crawler and Bullet dodger on Ossrum. I make one important mistake though: I forget to activate A&H before I move my BE, and so it can't actually do any harm to the Wraith Engine. I remove the Stalker on the left with my shooting (although the Avalancher missed). Another Stalker is blocked by a bunny.

He feats and charges in. Due to my feat also being in place, he only kills one bunny (and Alten and Eiryss). He also makes a big mistake: Denny is placed B2B with the objective.

I plan an assassination, which starts with the avalancher shooting the objective and knocking Denny down (and doing 4 damage). For the rest of the assassination to succeed, I need to kill the Wraith engine, because it isn't incorporeal and blocks LOS to Denny. After all the shots, I leave the BE on 3 boxes and Denny on around 8 boxes (I managed to get one spray on her and rolled well). Now, had I inflicted some damage on the engine the turn before, I am almost sure Denny would have died this turn.

However, what happens is that Gerard scores two points instead.

In his turn, Gerard kills my objective with the Wraith Engine and scores another three points, winning the game.

Analysis

In this matchup, it is extremely important to get the first turn. However, if you do get the second turn, then it's important to start shooting the Wraith Engine immediately, and also not to forget contesting with something sturdy. Going for attrition of the opposing forces is pretty difficult, because Denny's feat is coming in turn 2. This means also that Ossrum must feat turn 1.

Clogcon 2017 Day 1 Game 1: Ossrum vs Thagrosh 1

This past weekend, I went to ClogCon 2017.
This is the first report of Day 1.

The tournament on Day 1 was a masters event with three lists. I brought two, since I didn't know that it's a triad.

My lists:

Irregulars
Ossrum
- 4 Gunners
- 4 Blasters
- Avalancher
Siege Crawler
Aiyana and Holt
Free Eiryss1, Kell and Alten

King Maker
Damiano
- 2 Manglers
- 2 Nomads
- Bucaneer
2 x 10 Halberdiers
6 Trenchers + UA + 3 Grenades
Free Kell and Orin

In general, Damiano is the main beatstick, while Ossrum is the drop into Ghost Fleet, Twins and infantry hate.

My first opponent was Andreas Neugebauer. He had Thags, Fyanna 2 and Kallus. He chose Thags, because Fyanna will lose soundly to Damiano. I chose Ossrum mainly because of the infantry hate in his lists. Damiano is generally better against Fyanna but I didn't think he'd choose her.

His army consisted of:

Oracles
Thags 1
- Succubus
- Scythean
- Typhon
- Seraph
- Naga
2 Thrones
2 Forsaken
Sorceress
3 Spell Martyrs

I won the roll off and chose to go second, because this is a very live scenario. I chose the side where my rectangular zone is easier reached without pathfinder (the other side has a wood in the corner towards the center of the deployment zone).

Andreas deployed both Thrones in the center and I knew they'd get in each other's way if they try to go for the same side of the central building. My plan was to push hard on the left, since it both protects my flag and lets me contest his rectangular zone. If given opportunity, I will also score my zone (if not, I am OK contesting it). I have all gunners in the center and on the left flank and all blasters on the right one.

Andreas runs his forces forward and puts Draconic Blessing (+2 STR) on the right throne (looking from my side). I am happy with this, since I don't intend to present targets over there.

From some in-game comment I notice that my opponent is fixated on Alten and how dangerous he is. I decide to play a bit of psychology game and put snipe on him and then shoot Typhon for Grievous Wounds and the first 5 points of damage into Spirit. The Crawler gets FFE to start making serious work on the left throne soon. Otherwise, I move my troops ahead and make sure to keep them away from the throne's reach. A&H move along the BE to Kiss the throne.

Andreas doesn't want to give me anything for the killing in my right zone, and only contests it with one Martyr. He keeps both thrones tucked away behind the building and presents me the Scythean. Sorceress is in the center and casts "no shooting within 8".

Time to feat and score. I kill the contesting Martyr with a spray bunny and another that could contest next turn with another spray bunny. Score one in my rectangular zone. A&H Kiss the throne, and then BE shoots it. Avalancher and both artilleries unload on the Scythean, and with a bit of help kill him. Then the gunners finish the throne. One spray bunny runs from right flank to protect A&H, Kell and Eiryss1 (who is scoring the flag). Score goes to 2-0.

Legion tries to do some attrition (Thags also feats), but the dice rolls aren't good enough to punch through Ossrum's feat (and some rolls are downright aweful). In the end, I haven't lost one bunny. Importantly, my flag isn't contested and his isn't scored (the second spray bunny contests it, so he doesn't bother even moving a martyr there).

Unfortunately for my opponent, I only need to score two points to win, and that is easy with Bulldoze right now. His own zone is only contested with one Seraph, which needs to be bulldozed twice to get out of the zone. I bulldoze him once with the almost dead bunny after moving ossrum up field with a charge. Three of the bunnies in the center bulldoze his Scythean and sorceress around, enough that the fourth can reach the seraph without free strikes an bulldoze him out. I score my flag and his zone and win.

Analysis:

I don't remember any serious mistakes from my side in this game. My opponent was at a disadvantage here, but I think that the caution in his second round was a mistake: he just gave up too much on scenario there. Presenting me with one beast is bad: it's much better to get them all in my face at once. Yes, I will destroy the best ones, but at least the others will have targets.

WTC 2017 Solo Masters Game 4: Damiano vs Twins

For my third game, I faced Javier Fernandez with legion: Fyanna and Twins. I remember that Damiano works really well against Fyanna, and Ossrum isn't bad either. I didn't remember too much about twins, except that I had recently played Damiano against them at Ropecon in Finland, and was doing really well on attrition - although I was assassinated by not knowing the second assassination threat range (18" from Saeryn). So, I thought it might be better to play Damiano, as I won't be caught by the same trick again.

Javier's list:
Oracles
Twins
- Zuriel
- Seraph
- Protector
- Naga
- Raek
- Bloodseer
Throne
2 Helions
2 Spell Martyrs
Max hex hunters + Bayal

Javier won the roll off and chose to go second. I deployed symmetrically. He anchored the right flank with the throne and the right one with Zuriel.

I did a cautious advance (and shot off two hex hunters with a blast) with my trenchers, and also ran forward the rest of my force. My death march went on the right unit of halberdiers. This is a mistake; I haven't faced the throne and don't realize yet how good it is against my infantry. It should actually be clear that the halberdiers on the right have no chance to survive.

Javier jams my halberds with the hex hunters and runs Rhyas forward. Zuriel and Throne advance outside of charge ranges.

I contemplate trying to unjam with trenchers but the chaces are low, so halberdiers have to stay jammed (although re-cast Death March helps, as does the repo 5 from a coin). Trenchers do some insignificant attrition. Jacks prepare to attack either flank. Right halberds are jamming.

Throne kills almost all right flank halberdiers, Zuriel kills most left-flank halberdiers. Then Rhyas kills the red mangler. Protector contests my zone. Javier goes to 2 points, while I remain at 0.

I see that I absolutely have to kill Rhyas, as well as the Throne. I feat, and the right flank kills the throne. It's more difficult with Rhyas, as I need her knocked down, and she has a shield guard (protector). I try to kill him with my trenchers and Orin but leave him on one box. So, instead of knocking her down, I try to poke her with both the Bucaneer and the Nomad. They fail to kill her, and they get damaged a bit by riposte. Javier scores another point. Next turn, he just kills one trencher and goes to 5-0.

Analysis

I remembered later during the game one conclusion I already had about Rhyas: she should be shot, not killed in Melee. Attacking her in Melee is a trap.

In general, with the amount of infantry hate this list has, I feel that my Ossrum list would have been significantly better. With this list I am at a disadvantage on attririon.

Additionally, this scenario and with such terrain is exremely good for Twins. The threat of assassination makes it difficult to play aggressively, and so that favors the Twins scenario play. Bunnies would have made the game much more punishing for Rhyas, especially as I have stealth removal in that list (and the Crawler never has to get close unless I want it to).