My last major event for the year, the Everwinter GT in Peabody, Massachusetts on December 11 & 12. It is difficult to find events in New England so I often need to travel to play in a major event. This was a convenient hour away from me and it was a wonderful way to cap off the year.
The event’s final attendance count was at 46. Players were informed of the missions 3 weeks ahead of time, with final list submission being two weeks ahead of the event. The missions were:
- Round 1: First Blood
- Round 2: Tectonic Interference
- Round 3: Savage Gains
- Round 4: Survival of the Fittest
- Round 5: Feral Foray
Finally, two special rules for the event: First that there were 8 piece of terrain, 3 on each long edge and 2 in the middle. The two in the middle were line of sight blocking and could not be landed on, even with FLY and the other terrain pieces granted cover but did not slow movement to walk up. Pairings were based on W-L record and not points.
My list was Ossiarch Bonereapers again, refining the list throughout the year as I won or lost games. I finally settled on this, which I was quite proud of:
Alice Lirette's Ossiarch Bonereapers
With that out of the way let’s get into the games!
Round 1 – Steven Passios
Steven Passios' Stormcast Eternals
My first match was a toughie and while it was an uphill battle I kick myself for my arrogance. I put Katakros too far up and he got pelted with arrows, killing him in the first turn. My Morghast Harbingers got their revenge, killing the unit but it wasn’t enough. His Vindictors and Fulminators wore down my Mortek Guard and he won on objectives after killing almost everything.
It’s worth discussing that my Achille’s heel is ranged spam. If you’re unfamiliar with their mechanics, Ossiarch Bonereapers don’t get Command Points. They get “Relentless Discipline” which works very similarly, but you generate a lot more of them. The downside is you cannot use generic command abilities. This didn’t used to be a problem but with the dawn of all the generic abilities added in 3.0 it’s a limitation, especially the lack of All Out Attack/All Out Defense, Redeploy and Unleash Hell. This is going to be a theme. The one thing salvaging them is some all around solid units, but they still lack in the areas of ranged attacks (outside of one unit), mortal wound generation and movement options.
My one MVP moment of the game was my opponent underestimating Arkhan, charging in with fulminators and choosing a different unit to attack first. Arkhan managed to shred one and leave another with one health. Ultimately it was a minor victory and ended in my Loss 11-25
Round 2 – Chris Miller
Chris Miller's Kruleboyz
Oh, this was a bad time. Remember that comment about ranged spam being my weakness? I saw Kragnos and figured i need to deal with that, but that was not the real threat. Kragnos was easy enough to slow down with chafe in the form of Mortek Guard. The real kicker here was the 9 man man-skewers. When combined with Swampcalla that’s 18 shots with the potential to do 2 mortals for each 5 and 6. Let me tell you there’s nothing more demoralizing than your opponent telling you “OK you make 3 saves with no rend and…23 mortal wounds”.
Basically every round was those Man-Skewers annihilating a unit off the board. If I was smart I would have assessed the situation and attempted to take them out early with Harbingers, before they got the buff set up. I would have used the line of sight blocking terrain in the center more intelligently. There was stuff I could have done and I didn’t pick my priorities right. I was too afraid to approach and get slammed with Unleash Hell.
It basically ended in me getting tabled round 3, with a petty Loss at 14-24.
Round 3 – Nick St. Pete
Nick St.Pete's Fyreslayers
Feeling pretty dejected after getting open palm slammed in my last two rounds, I felt a bit better about this. Fyreslayers don’t have as much shooting, another footslogger army is something I can deal with. The one big fear was the Auric Hearthguard, as they become Damage 2 against Monsters. So my main goal was to keep Arkhan as far away from them as possible.
With that in mind I moved each of my 10 man Mortek up the left and right sides to capture objectives. On my left my opponent cast the Runic Fyrewall and seemed afraid to approach the Mortek Guard, keeping Berzerkers and the Magmadroth behind it. I held back and held the point. On my right some Berzerkers charged into my 10 men Mortek Guard and dismantled them, so I moved Katakros to anticipate them. He held out strong.
I moved my Morghast and 20 man mortek down the center to capture the juicy point in the back and slowly widdled down the forcest in his rear guard. By the end I was up by a lot of points, and finally scored a Win at 43-15 which was a nice way to cap off the day.
Round 4 – Miles Kovarik
Miles Kovarik's Cities of Sigmar
Remember that thing I said about shooting? Strap yourself in because this was probably the most exciting match of the tournament for me.
Cities of Sigmar has a nasty combo with Irondrakes, which are already pretty solid on their own. A unit of Irondrakes shoots 3+/3+ Rend -1 Damage 1 shots at 16″. If they didn’t move they double their shots. With judicious use of buffs you can very easily get them to 2+/2+ rerolling misses. The Soulscream Bridge means they can move without technically moving, allowing them some more freedom in getting to an ideal shooting spot, without sacrificing volume of fire.
It’s a lot to go through especially for someone like me who can’t handle shooting well. I decided to brute force it and push my strongest units up. One 10 man Mortek Unit went left. For the most part not a ton happened there, the 10 man Mortek weathered hits from Shadow Warriors and Hammerers, not falling until turn 3 but ultimately did their job as a distraction.
Everything else went right and the middle was left open, seeing Gotrek coming down the center, we’ll come back to that. I brute forced through the shots on the Irondrakes, my 20 man mortek managing to survive with a solid number of survivors and healing back 6. They then charging them round 2. They lost everything short of 3 men to Unleash Hell but that was good enough. With the Mortek in combat the Harbingers seized the day and like a can opener cut through the castle.
As for Gotrek, my opponent for the double and managed to get to me on the lower right side. He got into combat with Katakros. I winced but something magical happened. He managed to deflect most of the hits, and then got Gotrek down to 3 wounds. When it was my turn I had a choice, kill Gotrek or flee. I chose to go for it. I watched in agony as my hits missed, and then he managed to do the exact number of wounds needed to kill Katakros. At that point I thought it was over. He charged into Arkhan, but Arkhan had Protection of Nagash on. Arkhan survived the first volley then teleported out of there, capturing the middle objective.
By the end, it was a real Pyrrhic victory. I only had 4 models left on the field by the end (2 Morghast Harbingers, Arkhan and my Soulmason) but I won on points, even with my Grand Strategy failed. I scored a win at 24-19. I went from 2 losses to tying it back up.
Round 5 – Lucas McConnell
Lucas Mcconnell's Orruk Warclans
Last match and of the other 2-2 players this is actually the one I hoped to face the most. While ranged attacks are the bane of my existence, standing toe to toe with Monsters is what I do and even as Nasty as Mawcrushas are I felt confident.
He let me go first and I opened up with moving my Harbingers up and rolled a stunning 16″ on the 3D6 charge which let me get in turn 1 to take out a squad of pigs. This ended up being a mistake because the Mawcrusha near by came in and basically took that squad out, lesson learned.
The other Mawcrusha moved up on my left field and hit a 10 man mortek, decimating it. This left my other 10 man mortek to control the Mawcrusha on the right and the 20 man to keep being a pain in the ass to the other Mawcrusha. It was a balancing act with a lot of give and take. Katakros decided he had had enough and moved in to take out the Mawcrusha with the Amulet of Destiny and after being beaten within an inch of his life, Katakros took it down before being felled by the other one.
The MVP moment was Arkhan’s judicious use of Protection of Nagash. He just kept getting slammed into by Mawcrusha’s, surviving the attack and teleporting away, to burn an objective. At one point he survived with one wound before teleporting out. It was a lot of give and take on both sides but I got a win at 30-17. I was ecstatic.
Closing Thoughts
Confession time: Despite playing since middle of 1.0, I’ve never gotten a winning record at a GT. This is in part due to not playing as often as I should, after COVID I really only became what I would call competitive in September or so, where I started playing much more regularly.
It felt good to see my hard work pay off and win more times than I lost. More importantly, I see the mistakes that led to losses or almost-losses and how to improve. I don’t have that feeling of feeling caught out by some gotcha or unexpected result. I know my mistakes and the consequences of my actions and how to get better.
My next major event will probably be Adepticon in late March. Let me know if you’ll be there!
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