For those who don't follow me on twitter, last night I participated in my first ever Hardcore tournament. I ended up at 3rd place out of the 10 or so people we had for it, which I am more than happy with. For reference, my list:
pLylith
Carnivean
Seraph
Boltthrower
Shredder
Shredder
Forsaken
My game plan was to play Lylith somewhat forward (with a Shredder animus for defense buff) so I could shoot opposing casters with her, then assault with the C-Rex, strafe with the Seraph, and finish them off with the Boltthrower if needed. Strangely enough that is what I did 4 out of 5 games with some minor stipulations to individual games based on my opponents.
Round 1 versus:
Andrew with Mortenebra and Deathjack and other good Cryx stuff. He engages me at the top of turn two... and when I say me I mean Lylith. Luckily he leaves her with one health. Lylith walks away, risking the free strike which he missed, shot Mortenebra leaving the Carni to finish her off.
The Carnivean kills a caster.
Round 2 versus:
Jason with Kromac, a Gnarlhorn, 2 Feral Warpwolves, and a Totem Hunter. He threw a feral at me didn't do a terrible amount of damage, unfortunately it took all my guys to kill it. He advanced up closer with no attack on his next turn. I walk Lylith up to shoot Kromac... Gnarhorn counterslams her 6 inches! Luckily that left my good ol' Carnivean a lane to assault Kromac with a hair of his base in Lyliths control area.
The Carnivean claims its second caster of the night.
Round 3 versus:
Brian with Kraye, Stormclad(?), Centurion/Ol' Rowdy(?), Hunter, Hunter. I cant remember exactly. All I know is over two turns he threw both heavies at me, I didn't die, then on my turn I killed his heavies and a hunter. At this point he only has Kraye and a badly damaged hunter, I screwed up and ditched all of Lyliths fury because my beasts were all pretty full. The hunter advances shoots Lylith needing I think a twelve to hit and hits, 6 boxes left, 6 damage. GG
Round 4 versus:
Mike with pNemo, a hunter, arcnode thing (Lancer?), Gunmages, and more. He walked Nemo behind a wall and I walked Lylith behind a wall. he tries to arc an earthquake at her needing 15 to hit, misses. Lylith feats, I assault Nemo with Carni boosting to hit, hit, boost damage dice minus 1... triple 6's! One shot pNemo!
Carni gets his third caster of the night!
Round 5 versus:
Geoff with Mortenebra, Deathjack, more Cryx junk.
(Aside:
At this point we have a clear cut winner as Geoff is the only undefeated, but the T.O. decided it was going to be 5 rounds from the beginning so we played 5
/Aside)
Almost goes the exact as game one. Deathjack gets to Lylith on turn two doesn't kill her. Walk away, his free strike hits killing a Shredder on the transfer, shoot Morty for some damage. Carnivean assaults a solo catching Morty with the spray, unfortunately my turn ends before I can roll on Morty. I needed a 12 to hit on 4 dice so chances are I would have hit and on an average roll there would have been more than enough damage.
But that's not how it played out and Geoff claimed total victory, congratulations to you Geoff and good games.
Hardcore is a completely different animal than Steamroller, which are pretty much the only tournaments I have played in. All things considering I had a pretty good time, though for the first two rounds I was stressing out way bad and had adrenaline shakes (or as my friend calls it, Fight Mode). After that I kind of stopped caring so much, relaxed and just played for fun. To anybody who hasn't played in a Hardcore event before I would recommend you try it at least once, it is fun. Though I won't be playing in one anytime soon. :)
