Saturday Gaming: Schism & War of the Ring

Greetings,

Saturday saw a huge chunk of gaming happen for me. I ran the Schism event for the Metamorphosis release and played Heath a game of War of the Rings. It was a long day of gaming, having to show at the Shoppe at 0930 to set up the Schism event and then playing Heath at 1800, but then the longest day of gaming is better then the shortest day of working! :)

Hordes Schism was a pretty fun event. It is a great break from the standard tournament setting that WM or Hordes follows as their isn't a set number of rounds and you continually fight game after game. We played from 1030 to 1630 with no lunch break. Most folks got about 5-7 games in which is all good. It is also the type of event you actually want an odd number of players as it makes it quicker to get someone on an open table once a game ends. Since we had an even number of players, I got to play ringer as the odd man out. I played Cygnar with the following two lists:

One:

• Commander Coleman Stryker w/ Squire, Lancer, Ol' Rowdy
• Stormsmith
• Arcane Tempest Gun Mages w/ Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer w/ Hunter

Two:

• Captain Victoria Haley w/ Squire, Lancer, Centurion
• Stormsmith
• Arcane Tempest Gun Mages w/ > Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer
• 8 Sword Knights w/ Sword Knight Officer & Standard Bearer
  

Of the two lists, I had much better success with the Haley list. The ATGM load on Stryker is just too heavy point wise with no real counter charge backup.

Each game played after the first has a defender and attacker with flags on the field that have to be protected/taken depending on what side of the table you are on. Primary objective is to have the most wins as Defender. Secondary objective is to capture or defend the most flags, have Warjacks/Warbeast survive, and paint a non-warcaster character. The tricky part of the Primary objective is that Defenders suffer "depletion" which saps away the strength of the army as you keep winning, making it extra hard to stay on game after game. The winners were as follows:

• Smitty: Champion with four wins as defender. He wins by one extra win in the defender spot.
• Sam from Lincoln: Flag Man! Captured nearly all the flags for every game except one, while winning three games as defender. No easy task.
  
• Rich 'Constructs Rock' W.: Since the rules state that you don't count 'wild' in the survivor category and Constructs never go wild, even when the Warlock is killed, Rich racked up the points.
• Joe 'Only guy with a mostly painted army' P.: The painting competition was for a non-warcaster, character model. Three guys had something that qualified. Joe's looked the best.

After the event Heath and I played a 1500 point game of War of the Rings. I got destroyed... To a Dwarf. The VP count wasn't even pretty being 12 to 3. Heath showed no mercy and played a solid strategic game that even overcame two failed charges in the second turn.
Here is my list:

• Dwarf Warrior w/ HW & Shield - 2 Companies
• Dwarf Warrior w/ Great Weapons - 2 Companies
• Dwarf Ranger w/ Bows - 3 Companies
• Vault Wardens - 3 Companies
• Ered Luin Rangers - 2 Companies
• King's Champion - Monster
• Balin, Lord of Moria - Epic Hero
• Gandalf the Grey

I set up the VW in the middle with both warriors on either side to provide flank protection. The Rangers w/ bows took a hill to shoot down things. The King's Champion was on my right flank and the Ered Luin Rangers were ambushing in a building also on the right. Heath set up from my left to right: Warg Riders, Huri-Ki Warriors, Crossbow Orcs, Pike Huri-Ki, Legendary Scout unit, Bezerkers, and Sappers.

I let Heath have priority first so I could see how he moved out and to let him get closer for my Magic actions. We both pretty much moved forward with the Warg Riders coming quick around the end. The Sappers occupied the building on the right in a hope to avoid fire to deliver their deadly cargo.

Heath and I both used alot more magic this go around. He found a good strategy to make my expensive Vault Wardens all but useless. In the end my big advantage in Defense was negated by Shield Breaker and Re-roll spells. Very painful. Things that did go well for me was eliminating the Scout Unit with a combination of magic and heroic charge, the Monster Charge from the King's Champion, and conducting an Heroic Duel with a unit Captain of the Pike Orcs. Things that didn't go well was counter magic and the lack of mobility. As much as I like the VW, I think I'll have to cut them down to one or two stands at 1500 and add more core units or an Eagle. For a 2000 game, I am thinking an Eagle is a must for the mobility and extra monster action.

That is all I got for tonight. They Live finally made it through the Netflix queue so I'll be watching that tomorrow in the morning and I'll post about dinner from Friday night that the Other Half and I had... It was very Yummy!

jp
Mobility, Bah!