KublaCon 2010 Update

KublaCon is in full swing here, and yesterday I got to play in a 15pt mangled metal tournament. Kubla is a nice break from my normal hectic lifestyle these days, but I'm actually taking a break from it for today to get caught up on life. Tomorrow I'm planning to play in a special multi-player Warmachine event. However, for now, here's a summary of the 15pt tournament from yesterday...

Format:
The format was 15pts, warcaster/warlock and jacks only (standard Mangled Metal). 40 minute rounds with no timed turns. The mission was Killbox, but I don't think anyone ever lost to the scenario, although I heard a couple stories of people nearly screwing up by moving out of it. It turned out we had 16 people for the tournament as well.

My List:
Thagrosh, Carnivean, Angelius. I opted for Thagrosh because, well, his feat is pretty broken at this point level. I chose the Angelius for its speed and armor piercing hitting power. The Carnivean was because it's just plain awesome all around, but especially because its animus is awesome in this format. My intention going into the tournament was to use the Carnivean boldly and be ready to bring him back with the feat after I lost him.

Round 1: Loss
Karchev, Juggernaut, 2x Berserker - This was a really close game. It was a back and forth trading of heavies, with me starting the assault with an Angelius alpha strike under Draconic Blessing. Even a Khador jack cries under the pain of an armor piercing P+S 16 attack. I ended up using Thagrosh's feat to bring the Angelius back for a second round of it as well. In the end, I got a run on Karchev, but he was camping 5 focus and my dice rolls were just low enough that I failed to take him down by a few points and then he clobbered me. Incidentally, when he did swing and connect with the first hit (that I couldn't transfer either), he rolled triple sixes. Ouch!

Round 2: Win
Goreshade, Leviathan, 2x Slayer - I sort of deserved to face Goreshade. His feat is nasty in this format, just like Thagrosh's. This battle was swift. I put Thagrosh out there and alpha striked with the Angelius again. Goreshade rushed up, cast Mage Blight, feated, and dropped 3 Bane Thralls on Thagrosh. Then, in a moment if sheer luck, I walked the heavy wounded Carnivean out of melee with a Bane Thrall and survived the free strike without losing an aspect and proceeded to spray down all the Bane Thralls on Thagrosh. Thagrosh then charged in and cut Goreshade to ribbons.

Round 3: Win
eDoomshaper, Mauler, Axer, Slag - Unfortunately I lost the initiative in this battle, so I had to stall a bit before rushing in. My opponent made some errors in distance judgement and I managed to capitalize. Again, the Angelius alpha strike was devastating, crippling the Mauler but amazingly not killing it. However the next round was pretty crushing, leaving only eDoomshaper alive in the troll force. He made a desperate run on Thagrosh but at that point it was too late and the poor elder troll was cut down.

Round 4: Win
Amon, Devout, 4x Dervish - This could have been an amazing battle. It could have been full of crazy and kickass. It could have been a truck load of fun. However, my opponent's dice were just cursed. 3 times he charged in needing small numbers (5's and 6's) to hit, and all 3 times he rolled 3. After that, it all feel apart like a house of cards. I honestly felt bad, and would love to get in a rematch with this guy at some point.

Round 5: Tie
Asphyxious, Deathjack, Nightwretch, Cankerworm - Stupid casters running stupid away. If we hadn't run out of time, I'd have won this one. As it stood, I nearly pulled it off, but to the credit of my opponent, he managed to position his Nightwretch just right at the end to prevent me from getting the charge I needed on Asphyxious. So very very close. It was a pretty tight battle actually, with the DJ nearly coming back from only 2 boxes remaining to ruin my day. However he missed with all his attacks and after that it was short order to finish him off. Parasite was the bane of my existence in this game. If only we'd had another round to play.

Round 6: Win
Karchev, Behemoth, Juggernaut - Another close game. My opponent pulled the Karchev slingshot trick, dropping the Juggernaut on Thagrosh and the Behemoth on the Carnivean. However, my transfers kept me alive and then the Angelius was free to charge Karchev in the back and skewer him. Even if I had rolled average on the Angelius' damages and not killed Karchev there, Thagrosh was still rockin around and could have finished the job. Proof once again why I like Warlocks over Warcasters.

Results:
Don't ask me how it worked out, but apparently due to strength of schedule... I won! I was more than a little shocked actually. I though I was in contention for maybe 3rd place, but amazingly I came out on top. More than that though, I had a really kick ass time. Here's my bullet-point highlight reel:

Everyone I played was super awesome fun. Not a single bit of jerk around. And it was pretty much all people outside of my LGS area.

The format was a blast. I love the small point battles like this. I mean seriously, we played 6 rounds in about 6 hours!

It was amazing how often I forgot about Thagrosh's Death Shroud. I'm not sure it would have made a difference in most cases, but I need to remember it.

The Angelius is super awesome. Love it on the battle field!

I got a ton of comments about my Angelius conversion and my painting in general. It was also very cool to see almost every army be fully painted, and even those that weren't fully painted were mostly painted.