BUSTED BY BUSTER ...

From DUBOIS WARMACHINE BLOG

So this is the final tale from the recent 1-1-1-1 tournament I played in at The Vault in Greensburg, PA.

I had won my first game by Victory Points, and lost my second game. I was out of the running, but having a lot of fun. I was matched up with my friend and fellow Pressganger, Saidin, who was running the event. I noticed that he was using Rhulic, but was surprised that he was fielding Durgen Madhammer as the Warcaster.

I admit from the beginning that I didn't know a whole lot about Madhammer. I had glanced over his profile in the Superiority book a few times. I had heard some of the local DuBois players say that they didn't really prefer him as a Warcaster. I knew about his Primed spell, and the fact that he had the wacky Carpet Bomb gun. I was about to be taken to the Madhammer School of Smackdowns.

First off, I put the Thunderhead up close enough to be able to pop off ranged attacks against his unit of Forgeguard. I had Haley in a position behind the Thunderhead where she could wander out and pop off some Chain Lightning. I put Pendrake off to the side away from the Thunderhead because during my last game I had ended up accidentally putting Pendrake in the Thunderhead's front arc and almost killed him with my own pulse attacks. (duh.) And I put the Trenchers in front of Pendrake at an angle so they could do battle with Lug, then hopefully flank out Madhammer. Not the best of ideas. I should really study up on Lug, too, come to think of it ... but that's a whole different story.

Anyway, on turn one, I basically lost the Thunderhead. Yes, on turn one. Madhammer wad just close enough to pop off Buster and use Case Cracker. (Which I didn't realize he could do ... ignorance ain't bliss...) The damage was sufficient enough to knock out movement and remove an arm. Ugh...

My Trenchers were busy making war with Lug and his pet Dwarf, and Haley managed to fry some ForgeGuard with Chain Lightening on my turn one. However, my efforts to move Haley to a defensible position using terrain would prove to be fatal.

On turn two, Madhammer dropped the Carpet Bombs on Haley, and managed to assassinate her in her tracks.

Wow, not a good showing on my part at all. But I had a good laugh and learned that Madhammer is worth a second look ... if only to know what the heck he can do on the battlefield.

In looking back, I probably should have used Nemo with the Thunderhead, but when I was making my list I got greedy and said t myself ... I can add the Thunderhead with all the points I have left over! Sure, why not. Uh, hindsight is 20/20, right?

As I write this, I am getting ready to attend Schism in York, PA. I will hopefully do a little better this time, and have some good battle reports to write about. This will be my 7th (?) official tournament setting. Wish me luck. I'm going to try to capture a bunch of flags!