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Awhile back I started a thread about SWarm and how I thought it was still viable in the Blood War meta. After playtesting it against the CG Storm bands that were everywhere, I saw that it actually stood up to them pretty well. You had to watch your positioning as to minimize the lines of the Bralanis and Storm, but as long as you did that, you were ok. Firegiants worried me as they can reliably hit the AC and if they pass Incorp can one shot kill a Watcher. Add Cleave into that and it can get ugly quick. But if you play it similar to how you'd play SWarm against the old Marut/Couatl (ignore the Marut and go after everything else) then you stand an ok chance. So after some playtesting I decided it was what I was bringing. I had one of my locals, Kenwig, repaint the warband for me and then as a personal touch to the band, each of the 6 Sacred Watchers have one of the letters to spell out D-A-M-A-G-E if you line them up together. And they also were numbered on the back of each Watcher similar to a sports jersey would be.
So Friday was the day to bring the DAMAGE SWarm to the table. Round 1 I got paired up against Richard II who was running Eye of Gruumish, Orc Champ x 2, Tiefling Captain, Cursed Spirit, Xendrik Champion, Orc Wardrummer, and Hyena I think. His map was Hellspike, which he won and took. We positioned some early and then engaged. I was worried about the Champs with their 30 point cleaves, but Richard struggled with Incorp for most of the game. I was able to get both champs and then get the Eye and finish off the rest of the warband for the win. 1-0
Out of the 40-50 warbands there, there was 1 Tordek. And in Round 2, my SWarm had to face it. Now Tordek isn't bad by any means but I still don't like him. I got paired up against Zach who was running Tordek, Battleplate Marshal, Dwarf Ancester, Dwarf Sniper, Hill Dwarf Warrior x 3, and Man at Arms on Caves of Chaos. I don't remember if he won map or if I did, but we ended up on Caves of Chaos. He took the forest side and marched up along that side of the map towards the caves. I moved over in that direction and he used GMA on the Dwarfs. In about round 2 or 3 we engaged and I let Tordek get over to the Sword Archon. He and the Archon went toe to toe with the Watchers SWarming Tordek. He got a few watchers and eventually I got Tordek. I then went after the Battleplate and got him as well. After that it was the Dwarf Ancester to fall and I was able to hold off the win on tile points. 2-0
Round 3 I got paired against Aron1 and his Storm, Quad Shadowdancers, Gnome Trickster, Xeph x 3 band. I got lucky and got my map so we played on King's Road. This was a great match. Very back and forth. Aron came after the Archon early and I was able to hold him up and keep him alive for several turns due to carefully pulling him away from the battle. He eventually died due to a line from Storm, but that left the Watchers vs Storm, 2 Dancers, and the Trickster. Aron pulled away and went to the central Victory Area. He made a placement mistake and left 1 Shadowdancer out of the forest and I was able to base it with 5 Watchers. She fell after a round or two of combat and I pulled back 1 watcher to get VP. Very close match and I ended up winning the game by just a few points I believe. 3-0
Round 4 I got paired up against Chad the Dragon Lord and his Forgepriest, DC x 2, Urthok band. I got map init and we were on King's Road. I tried to position carefully so that I could try to avoid the cleaves from the Giant if possible. Chad went to the central VA and decided to place most of his figures there. He took out my Scout early and I went up there to engage him. I put my Watchers on both DCs, 1 at a time, and on Urthok. I took out both DCs and got Urthok to half where he failed morale but Rallied to come back. The Firegiant then decided he didn't like ghosts as Chad proceeded to make almost all of his Incorp checks on the Watchers. It came down to the Archon vs Urthok and the Firegiant at 135 points. I moved the Archon so that he could swing on Urthok. Unfortunately this was within reach of the Firegiant. I figured I could take 2 hits, win init, and fly off. Nope. Chad attacked me....first attack hit, second attack Crit to outright kill the Archon. So my killing off everything but the Firegiant idea doesn't quite work out when he doesn't miss Incorp. 3-1
Now Round 5 and 6 I'm confused on what order they were in. I think Round 5 was against CSchroder and his Storm/Archmage build. We rolled for map and he got it so I was off to the Grotto. My main fear was Banishment or him getting a few Mordy Swords off on the Archon. So I hid in the forest first round then just sent the Watchers out on turn 2. Over the next few rounds they killed off fodder and got Charles down on activations. Then Charles put a sword on 2 differnt Watchers. After that I brought out the Archon to play clean up on some pieces. This was a very close match. I got him down to everything but Storm and the Archmage. Once I brought out the Archon, the was able to try Banishment, but I made the save. We went to time and I was up on points by around 20 or so I believe. Great game against Charles and he'd get his revenge later on. 4-1
Round 6 I got to play Jamie Armel who was playing Marut, Couatl, Arcane Ballista, Cleric of Order, Mailee, Men at Arms x 2 on Frostfell. He won map so we were on Frostfell. This was a matchup that I'd played against last year during Qualifier season so I knew how to play it. I slowly brought out the Watchers and left the Archon back. He brought the Marut around one side to the lower bridge to hopefully kill off a few Watchers quick. He struggled with Incorp there though and they hung around for a few more rounds than he wanted. I was able to base the Ballista and then box it in with another Watcher and the Sword Archon. I finished it off, the Cleric of Order, and Mailee. I was up on points at that point so I pulled back. Jamie came after me with Marut/Couatl. I was able to block the Marut on the upper bridge and then Kill the Couatl. After that I pulled back to the central bridge to go over 200 for the win. 5-1
Going into Round 6 I was pretty confident that I'd make top 8 win or lose. I had good tie breakers and having that pressure off was good. I got paired up against Neilasaurus who was running Storm, Valenar x 2, Bralani, and Gnome Trickster. We were both running King's Road so map init was easy. I moved up SWarm towards the central VA and we engaged. Neil got fly off on both Valenar and then we met up around the central VA. He had the Bralani and one Valenar there. The Valenar had 1 square out of the forest so that's where I based it. His other Valenar did the same thing and I put 3 Watchers on it. He started to wear down the Sword Archon. He eventually got him, but I got 1 of the Valenars and the Bralani. I had the other Valenar down to about 15 hps or so. After Neil killed the Archon he pulled everything back and I wasn't able to catch up to him. 5-2
Top 8 got announced and I had finished the first part in 3rd place at the top of the 5-2s. First part of Top 8 I got paired with CSchroder again. This time I got map and while King's Road isn't bad for Archmage, I couldn't let him have Grotto again. This time Charles came up after the Archon, which I expected him to do and not play as defensive as he did the first time. He came up and got 1 Mordy Sword on the Archon. After that I put 4 SW and the Archon on the Archmage. He was down to 15 hps and then I couldn't hit him to finish him off. I had a shot to kill him with the Archon, but rolled a 3 for the attack, missing him by 2 in the forest. After that he pulled back the Archmage. I then put everything on Storm while she was there. I got her down to 15 hps as well. Charles had casts flight on her as well so she flew off as well. I then played Catch-a-mage and tried to corner the Archmage. I did a good job of getting up to him everytime he flew off and was able to set it up so that if I had won the following init I could have gotten off at least 2 attacks on him. But I never won that follow up init and Charles was able to hold me off for the win. Final record 5-3
So, overall I had alot of good games. 2 of my 3 losses could have been very different had a few dice rolls went differently. But I finished up in 7th place overall and got an invite to Gencon. Everyone I played were great and the judges did a great job of judging as well.
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