NETT: Results

This past weekend was the New England Team Tournament and boy was it interesting!  You can find some great pictures of the event and teams on the Privateer Press forums and LostHemisphere.  My Circle made an appearance in the photos of both locations, although my display board was cluttered with my tokens and tools at the time (bad timing!).  That's alright.  Regular Team made a pretty solid appearance this year, although not as strong as last year.  My team decided that since I showed up a little late that they would make me the captain.  It ended up being a good decision, because my 1st and 2nd Lieutenants admitted that they needed a bit more practice and we'll try again at Templecon.  Needless to say, Regular Team did not make it to the final rounds and we didn't really place, although I'm pleased with my own individual performance.  So, today, I'll share with you a brief summary of the day's events and then my closing thoughts at the end.

Round 1: Boiler Dumpers

Our first round was up against Boiler Dumpers and I got to play against a Troll list with choices of either eDoomshaper or eGrissel (I think?).  Considering both options had a fair number of warbeasts, I decided that pBaldur was a good way to start the day, especially considering the radial scenario.  Turns out my initial impressions were correct and my opponent later admitted that he had not played against Circle much.  He moved his warbeasts a little too aggressively his first turn and I was able to gobble up some fury with the Sentry Stone and the Mannikins were able to take 10 points or so off of his Mauler and forced Doomie to cut himself for fury the following turn.  Not bad for a 3 point unit!  Ultimately, my Woldguardian failed me against Mulg (he's really challenging to take down, especially at ARM 21) but my Woldstalkers ended up being my most valuable units in this game.  They were able to deal massive damage to my opponents beasts while both Megalith and the Woldguardian let me down and ultimately I managed a kill on Doomie because I had cleared out enough of his beasts to shoot Doomie to death with the Woldstalkers.

Round 1 Results
Captain (Me): Win
1st Lieutenant: Win
2nd Lieutenant: Win
Team: Win

Round 2: Temple Games A

Our 2nd round was against one of the local teams and after the first round, this meant that we were going against a team that was also 3-0 and that made us a little cautious after our first round of success.  When I saw my opponent's lists, I groaned: another Troll player.  Normally I don't have a problem dealing with Trolls, but he was rocking an eMadrak list and a pDoomshaper Tier 4 theme list - nearly identical to the one that I've been building towards.  The worst part?  He played Madrak first round.  Crap.  Normally, I would just play Baldur and have an okay chance, but since the NETT is Divide and Conquer, that would mean I'd be stuck playing pKrueger the last two games.  Damn.  pKrueger it was, and of course he brought pDoomshaper.

While my Druids certainly made things difficult for my opponent, my dice rolls were terrible this game and I was getting hit really badly.  The worst part was that we were playing Incursion and the two objectives on his strongest flank stuck around so I was stuck with my right flank being almost useless.  In hindsight I should have deployed the Woldwardens closer together.  On top of that, the table had 0 forests and 3 linear obstacles with water in the middle of the board - a wet dream (pun intended) for the Earthborn Dire Troll.  This was a lousy game for me but I had a glimmer of hope on what became my last turn - pDoomshaper moved within 13" of pKrueger - my assassination threat range.  I had only one chance and went for it.  I had my Woldwardens slap him with some arc'd Chain Lightning with boosted damage to soften him up and he had less than 10 boxes.  Now he was siting on ARM 19 thanks to Transmute and a nearby KSB, but I had to go for it.  I cast Skyborne and charged.  I boosted to hit since he was behind a wall and fortunately rolled an 11 to hit him.  Thank the gods for Sustained Attack!  I rolled charge damage: 2, 1, 1.  DAMMIT!  I bought 2 other attacks, boosting damage both times, and bought one last attack and Doomie was left with 2 boxes after using his transfer.  DAMN!  I was so close and if I had rolled even just an average result for my charge damage, I would have squeaked out a win.

Round 2 Results:
Captain (Me): Loss
1st Lieutenant: Loss
2nd Lieutenant: Loss
Team: Loss

Round 3: Electric Death Dragon

A Captain should stand in the middle, not to the right!

After such a disappointing game, I was in a bad enough mood, but then the PGs said we only had 20 minutes left for lunch - despite telling me specifically that I would have 45 minutes when I asked at the end of round 1.  Just because my game ran until the very last minute meant that I would be penalized for getting food?  Not cool.  Instead of having enough time to get Chipotle, I had to get Burger King and was a little more unhappy.  To all TOs out there: you should make sure that all of your players have enough time for lunch and not penalize those players who have close games.  If you get beaten early, it's okay to have more time, but those who play to the end (when it's Deathclock, at least) should not suffer for it.  I digress.

Round 3 was against my buddy's team from Pandemonium Games in Boston.  We met at Templecon this last year thanks to a combination of my dog, his girlfriend, my fiancee, and some booze.  This was our first time really playing seriously and he had his choice of bringing either Terminus or pDenny.  It was a little tough for me to decide what to bring, since Baldur would be good if he decided to bring Terminus, but pKrueger would be good against so much infantry (in either list).  He took Terminus and I took pKrueger and after my friend's first turn I saw an opportunity and, after the last game I decided to just go for it and... well... I'll let this video explain what happened:

Round 3 Results:
Captain (Me): Win
1st Lieutenant: Loss
2nd Lieutenant: Win
Team: Win

Round 4: Dark Omen II 

By this time we knew that we were maybe in the running for 3rd place if we won all of our games the last round, but with my 1st Lieutenant's poor performance thus far, it wasn't looking likely.  Divide and Conquer really threw us off and it meant that while we were playing with our most comfortable warlocks/warcasters, we were going to be stuck with any bad match-up we received.  I really don't like Divide and Conquer, but that's an article for another day.  This last round we played against a solid team and you'll never guess what my last opponent was bringing: Trolls.  That's right, everyone.  I got to play against three team captains who fielded Trolls.  I never would have guessed that would happen and I was maybe expecting to play one Troll list over the course of the day (if any), let alone three.  I should have brought my Cygnar after all.  At this point we still had our "team feat" that we could use, but so did the other team.  I rolled too low and while we wanted to use our feat to switch around some of the pairings, our opponents decided to do the same and I was stuck playing a Borka troll brick with Mulg with my pBaldur list and my 1st Lieutenant was playing Threemo with the Harbinger of Menoth.  On top of all of that we were playing my least favorite scenario: Outfight, Outflank, Outlast.

Great.  Well, fortunately, I had played this scenario before and realized how the scenario is a bit tricky - you can score control points on each turn instead of just at the end of the 2nd player's 2nd turn.  This meant that while my match-up was pretty bad, my opponent forgot about the scenario.  On the end of my 2nd turn I scored a point with some Woldstalkers and, seeing my weaker left flank, my opponent decided to concentrate all of his energy over there against Megalith - meaning he left my Woldstalkers alone to score another point on his 2nd turn.  This meant that by the end of my 3rd turn I didn't have to do anything and I would win.  Unfortunate for my opponent and I hate the scenario for that exact reason.  So for my last turn I derped around trying to kill stuff and my opponent passed an annoying number of 'tough' checks but ultimately I was able to kill Mulg, at least.  This happened fairly quickly and I was able to watch my teammates finish their games, at least.  I feel bad since it's such a lame way to win and I think PP needs to fix that scenario.

Round 4 Results
Captain (Me): Win
1st Lieutenant: Loss
2nd Lieutenant: Loss
Team: Loss

Oddly enough, while this photo was taken before we even
started playing, our expressions match our performances...

Regular Team Results:
Captain (Me): 3-1
1st Lieutenant: 1-3
2nd Lieutenant: 2-2
Team: 2-2

Overall, I'm pleased with how I played and my teammates admitted to needing to play more.  We learned that it's better to play with something familiar than to try something new because it seems like the better choice or it's somehow "more competitive."  I also learned that I need to play more games against Trolls and I have some ideas for tweaking my pKrueger list to make it a little more well-rounded.  Oh and we definitely need to get matching team shirts next time.