Thornwood Thursday: Michigan Cup Wrap Up

Last Saturday I played in the 2nd Michigan Cup Warmachine/Hordes Team Tournament at Gamer's Sanctuary.   Michael, Jason, and I formed "Blood Bath and Beyond" representing the home team for GS.   I was really hyped for this event and was planning for weeks the perfect two list combo to take.   We had decided to go all Hordes for our team (Skorne, Trollbloods, and Circle) as the first MI Cup was dominated by Warmachine players.

Unfortunately things did not go very well for me and I was unable to finish the tournament.  My phone started blowing up after round two and I had to deal with a family emergency which forced me to drop out. Fortunately the emergency wasn't serious and everything turned out OK.   At that point in the tournament I was 0-2 and at the bottom of the ranks of the 36 players in the tournament which was frustrating.   I hated leaving on such a downer, but at least I can say I can now run two fully painted 50 point lists for my Circle army in the future.   Long post and hobby pics below.

I started the new year with a goal of getting my Circle army painted up.   There has been a lot of cool releases for my Retribution so far in 2014 and it's been hard not to jump back to my main Warmachine army.   I do really enjoy playing Circle though and the models are a lot of fun to paint.

First on my hobby list was the unit of five Warpborn Skinwalkers.   I really like these models and I am happy with how they came out.   I used resin bases from Secret Weapon Miniatures with some fall themed leaves.

Coming from Retribution, this is my first use of medium based infantry which is great to prevent opponents from trampling over my small based models.    This unit is usually my first line of attack as their Relentless ability makes them more survivable.

Like many units in the game, things really get better with a Unit Attachment.    The Warpborn Alpha is well worth his points and I loved painting this model.

There was a lot of hidden details on this guy.   I also painted his fur a lighter color to have him stand out.

Next, I painted up a unit of six Druids of Orboros.    I really like how these models came out and the blue cloaks make for nice contrast.  I  painted the gold and green armor to tie my army paint scheme together.  I again used some SWM bases and fall leaf litter to finish up the basing.

The airbrush helped a lot getting the cloaks painted up but I still did a bunch of brush blending on the creases to make them stand out.   I also blended three shades of brown on their wooden voulge weapons.

Next I painted two Gallow's Grove solos.   I added some foliage to the limbs to give them a living tree look.

I also painted up a War Wolf solo as well for eKaya's tier list.

Then I finished up a full unit of ten Tharn Bloodtrackers to add a mobile ranged unit to my melee army.

List #1 (50 pts)
  Morvahna the Dawnshadow
     - Warpwolf Stalker
     - Gnarlhorn Satyr
     - Gorax
  Gallow's Grove
  Gallow's Grove
  Blackclad Wayfarer
  Tharn Bloodtrackers (10)
  Warborn Skinwalkers (5)
     - Warpborn Alpha
  Shifting Stones
     - Stone Keeper
  Druids of Orboros

 

List #2 (50 pts)
  Kaya the Moonhunter (Call of the Wild - Tier 4)
     - Warpwolf Stalker
     - Druid Wilder
     - Laris
     - Gorax
     - Feral Warpwolf
     - Pureblood Warpwolf
  War Wolf
  Druids of Orboros
  Shifting Stones
     - Stone Keeper
  Warpborn Skinwalkers (5)
     - Warpborn Alpha

Here's our team staging area before the tournament when we still had high hopes.

First round I played against a guy named Troy who was playing Legion.   He brought a Rhyas Tier list against me and I played my eMorvahna list since I saw a lot of infantry with a low beast count on both his lists.   Basically we were both unfamiliar with each other's casters as he said he never faced eMorvahna and I had not played against Rhyas yet.  To make a long story short, he got hot dice LOL.   Actually he was a really good player and the tier list was fast and on the objectives really quick.   My counter attack was OK, but then his feat turn pulverized a lot of my infantry.   I had a failed assassination on Rhyas during eMorvahna's feat turn and I left myself in a bad position for him to get an assassination win against me.   Good game, but I felt that I should have done better in that match up.

The second round I faced a familiar opponent, Aaron who was playing Menoth.   I saw he hadn't played his Harbinger list yet so I was expecting him to choose it.   I mistakenly chose my eMorvahna list again thinking her spells would blast a lot of his infantry blocks.   I didn't realize until it was too late that his two weapon master mercenary Dwarf units  would be immune to spell targeting from the attendant priest attachments.   Also, without a long range shooting threat, Harbinger was free to keep them alive with lots of Martyrdom rolls and then heal herself up afterwards.   I lost by attrition even after eMorvahna's feat turn.   This game showed me how bad not having a longer range shooting option is to threaten support casters.

As I said, that was it for me on the day.   Very disappointing considering how much I was looking forward to it and thought I had practiced enough to know how my lists would do.   But I continue to learn a lot and hope it will pay off in some success someday.

Going forward I plan on getting my Woldwrath assembled and painted up soon.   I have been playing my Circle army in the very fun PP campaign Charsaug league season one.   I really enjoy the casual format and different ways to get league points.

Sorry for the long post.  Thanks for reading, comments are welcome!