Many of you may have read about our staff tournament in Will Hungerford’s Privateer Insider blog or in the Guts N Gears coverage on our forums. They say that “history is written by the victors,” so I’m going to take that to mean I am welcome to spin this tale for my own nefarious purposes.

I chose to bring a High Allegiant Amon Ad-Raza list and a Harbinger of Menoth list to the event:

List 1

• High Allegiant Amon Ad-Raza
• Dervish
• Dervish
• Dervish
• Devout
• Devout
• Repenter
• The Convenant of Menoth
• Wracks
• Minimum Choir of Menoth
• Minimum Choir of Menoth
• Maximum Holy Zealots
• Monolith Bearer

List 2

• Harbinger of Menoth
• Devout
• Repenter
• Avatar of Menoth
• Vassal of Menoth
• Wracks
• Minimum Choir of Menoth
• Minimum Choir of Menoth
• Maximum Holy Zealots
• Monolith Bearer
• Knights Exemplar

In my first round, I was paired against Chris Lester and his Rhulic forces. I chose Amon and Chris chose his Ossrum list. The attrition game went clearly to Amon, as the Hymn of Battle and the Synergy spell allowed the nimble Dervishes to make short work of Ossrum’s forces. My assassination attempt against the sturdy dwarf failed, however, thanks to some less-than-stellar rolls. Sensing an opportunity, Chris pulled out all the stops and used Perfect Plan, Unstoppable Force, and a full Energizer to make his way all the way over to Amon. With just 1 focus remaining for battle, however, the dwarf wasn’t quite able to hew down the Idrian monk, and Amon finished him off in style using a Smite attack. I’m already looking forward to future games with Chris since I know his play style will help me train against my biggest weakness: getting too bloodthirsty and losing my warcaster.

In round two, I faced Johan Cea’s Cygnar army. He chose his Haley list, and I reached for Amon once again. As a player with an Amon army of his own with five Dervishes, Johan knew what he was getting into. Still, the wall of warjacks under Hymn of Passage put a real crimp into his ranged-oriented game plan, and the Covenant of Menoth made his Avenger far less threatening. After Amon’s Amazing Circus of Pain destroyed vast swathes of Johan’s army in one turn along with putting me in a solid Control Point lead, Johan went for the assassination. Someday I’ll learn not to over-commit my warcaster. Maybe. But with the attrition Johan had already suffered, Haley’s Blitz offensive wasn’t quite enough. A few minutes later, a Synergized Battlefied Dervish finished off the time mage. The next time we meet on the battlefield, I’m planning to play Haley against his Amon list, and we’ll see if the monk makes a repeat performance.

Round three set me against Bryan Cutler in Protectorate on Protectorate action. Bryan chose his Severius army list, and I chose Amon yet again. You know what Side Step is great against (or obnoxious against if you’re on the wrong side of the table)? Shields. Bryan had not one, not two, but three warjacks with shields in his army list. We both made a few mistakes while rushing to beat the clock on critical turns, and Bryan did an impressive job of whittling down my maximum Synergy bonus. I kept my warcaster safer than usual for once and thanked Menoth for the Devout’s Spell Barrier that kept Severius’s spell-based offensive at bay. Battered but unbroken, the remnants of Amon’s light warjack army broke through into the Grand Scrutator’s guard and decapitated the future Hierarch.

At the start of round four, I took my Harbinger list against Will Shick’s Ravyn list. The terrain gave a slight advantage to Will’s shootier list, but the scenario gave a slight edge to my more melee-oriented list. The first round really took the wind out of my sails, however, when a Starburst cannon shot from the Hyperion removed several troopers from the game and ripped a gaping hole in my Avatar’s damage grid thanks to some hot dice. Will said it was his first critical consume of the whole day. Naturally. The brave (fanatical) Protectorate forces fought their way back, however, and grabbed a scenario victory from the Retribution of Scyrah. Unlike the rest of my opponents, I hope I never fight Will again. Nah, just kidding. You can expect to see us in a No Quarter battle report again some time soon. He’s easily one of my favorite opponents.

Overall, I had a great day against some great opponents. Steamroller 2013 is coming along really well, and I am excited to see how the competitive meta evolves next year with the new format. I’m also really glad to see that SR 2013 is a really accessible format. Even our tournament virgins had no difficulty traversing the Steamroller scenarios and victory conditions.

In addition to the standard prizes for the tournament, we had a few additional prizes. There was a stuffed “Cuddle Argus” that went to Dianne for her impeccable sportsmanship, a bottle of “Ed Slayer” rum that went to Jason for defeating Ed, and a “Glitter Titan” that went to Ron for his amazing army paint job. There was also a special “DC Slayer” prize you can see below, but it will have to go unclaimed for the time being. It now sits in my office awaiting a future tournament.

Staving off the Slayer One Day at a Time,
-DC