Cronch's Road Through 2025, Part 7: Mercia Madness III

First up, apologies for this being a few days late, for those of you waiting impatiently. You might have noticed that I have written a lot of stuff for the site recently, and I just ran out of time to get this done! It’s here now. Some stuff below is probably a bit out of order time-wise, for that reason.

Two weeks has flown by, again. I don’t know where the time goes. Previously, I was taking a rest from games of Age of Sigmar, taking stock of some hobby shame pile items, and planning for an event. This time we’ve got a packed schedule thanks to my attendance at Mercia Madness III, a 2-day GT held locally to me. I can also finally show off some of the hobby I’ve been doing recently!

Hobby

Probably unsurprisingly to anybody with a vague concept of time and release schedules, I was painting Helsmiths of Hashut! I remain enamoured by these guys, although I’m really enjoying sinking the time and effort into them, so it’s been slower progress than I ideally would have liked.

Helsmiths of Hashut Ashen Elder. Credit: Rich Nutter

I got through an Ashen Elder, a pair of Infernal Razers, and five Hobgrot Vandalz, as well as the Daemonsmith from the top of the Infernal Taurus. The big cow has now been stripped, so I’ll be having a second go at that soon.

Helsmiths of Hashut Infernal Razers. Credit: Rich Nutter

You can read more about what Norman and I thought about the models in our review.

Helsmiths of Hashut Hobgrot Vandalz. Credit: Rich Nutter

On top of that, I also painted some mermaid witches and some tokens for the upcoming Sirens’ Oath RPG from Twisted Spire. I’m really happy with these, I went at the project with an intent to get them done quickly but looking good for the table, and to write the process up for a potentially less-experienced audience, and I’m really proud of the final article. You can check it out here, and have a look at Jay’s review of the game while you’re at it.

Sirens' Oath Mermaids and Cauldrons. Credit: Rich Nutter

Finally, I reviewed the Mini Colour paint range from Cult of Paint and Artis Opus. I really enjoyed these, but it was an interesting challenge writing up 4,500 words worth of thoughts in one day after using the paints for a couple of weeks! Some of my leftover samples have already entered my regular rotation.

Photographing spoons for the review. We do have fun. Credit: Rich Nutter

Gaming

As mentioned last time, I’ve been at a two day event locally, Mercia Madness III, hosted by my friend Dan. I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while, as Dan is a great TO and we always get a good crowd; I feel like you’re more or less guaranteed five friendly but competitive games. With list submission due a couple of days before the event start, I chose not to deviate from my intended path and went with the list I was planning last time, copied below for convenience’s sake:



I remain pretty happy with it - the Terminos & Reclusian block is a great hammer/anvil block as the need arises, and the Quicksilver Draught can throw a spanner in the works of your opponents’ key turns. The Soulsworn are extra resilient and bring another potential ward to the party, the Vigilors are a great way of avoiding having to use All-Out Attack, and the Stormcoven are good utility casters with more access to strike first/last. Meanwhile, the Relictor can remove or reduce the ward on your key target, and the Knight-Judicators can pop off shots reliably. The Prosecutors I think I had often been throwing away before, and while that does still happen I am getting more out of them now - deploying them on the board near the portal and buffing them up before teleporting them, rather than just deep striking them and relying on 3+, 3+, Rend -1 attacks which don’t always have the juice.

Stormcast Eternals Stormcoven. Credit: Rich Nutter

Game 1 - Passing Seasons, vs Dom’s Gloomspite Gitz

I was pleased to be paired up with Dom as he’s normally based out of London, and we only get to play very rarely. Dom is one of those people that’s the platonic ideal of a great Warhammer opponent - fun, friendly, and keen to make the game engaging and enjoyable for both parties, but also a talented competitive player.

Passing Seasons means that we need to be careful to keep a presence near each diagonal pair of objectives as they flip each round. Dom gave me the first turn, and I advanced cautiously. The Questor Soulsworn grabbed the top objective, but I chose not to overextend onto the other one - Dom had a unit of Scourge of Ghyran Fanatics within range of taking it back off of me with their end of turn move, and I’d also be putting something in range of some punishing trogg combat. Dom shuffled up and grabbed the objective, and we ended the battle round with both of us having scored just 5 primary points.

Facing off vs Dom's Troggs. Credit: Rich Nutter

I won priority into turn 2, and it stayed this way for the rest of the game. I kept turn order and took the bottom objective with Iridan after a clever use of their jumping rampage, scoring me part 1 of Restless Energy. In the middle of the board, my Reclusian/Terminos combo charged in and (with a little shooting support) spiked high and lifted a whole unit of Rockguts - not ideal for Dom. The next turn they would lift Trugg too.

From here it was mostly cleanup, and unfortunately for Dom his list just never really got started in this game. He played well with the limited troggs and other Gitz he had left, but after I’d taken the heart out of the list it was going to be an uphill battle to secure a win.

Result: 55-25 Win

A rough start for Dom and a pleasing one for me - this is my first win vs him and for a while he’s been one of the players I’d measure myself against as a kind of test of where I want to be as a player. As expected, the game was fun, fair and friendly, and it didn’t put a damper on Dom’s weekend - he ended up taking Best Overall with a 4-1 record.

Game 2 - Cyclic Shifts, vs Will’s Skaven

I’ve played Will at quite a few of these events now, and he’s always brought something different. This time it’s Moulder-themed Skaven, focused around two big blocks of Rat Ogors with two of the SoG Brood Terrors.

After deployment, I noticed that Will had left his Grey Seer out on one flank, using him to cap an objective at the start of the game. He let me go first, and I immediately tried (and mostly failed) to power up my Prosecutors, then sent them through the portal to hunt a rat. They had to drop mostly out of shooting range thanks to a terrain piece, but made the 3d6 charge and then…failed to kill the Seer. They did take the objective for Restless part 1, and then finished the Seer off in Will’s turn 1 to bank part 1 of Master the Paths for my next turn. Will’s turn 1 was cagey, moving up 6 ogors and the terrors up behind a Clanrat screen, and sending the other 6 rat ogors off to a flank to take an objective.

I got turn 2 priority and made a couple of plays that I think are pretty representative of my improving tactical ability. Firstly, I advanced my Prosecutors on the Ratling Guns, but I kept them short of their full move so that they were fully concealed behind a large piece of scenery - this left them with a longer charge straight over the building, but kept them immune to being picked apart by Covering Fire. Secondly, I charged Iridan and the Reclusians into the Clanrat screen, but then bounced Iridan over using their rampage, where they promptly destroyed the unit of Rat Ogors cowering behind the smaller rats. The Reclusians made short work of the clanrats, and then Iridan used Power Through to retreat to safety. Seriously, Power Through is so good. Will engaged a unit of Vigilors with his other Rat Ogors on his turn, but failed to make much leeway.

Will's Skaven, before Iridan rudely jumped over those Clanrats. Credit: Rich Nutter

In turn 3, things went right. The Stormcoven got their fight first spell onto Iridan, and everything charged into the two Terrors. Once again Iridan jumped around with their rampage, tagging the Screaming Bell. Activation nonsense meant that I then got to fight with 4(!) units before Will got a chance: fights first Iridan killed the Bell, the Terminos popped his fights first potion and finished off a wounded Brood Terror, the Reclusians got dragged after him to drop the other Terror, and then the Questor Soulsworn got to chew through some Rat Ogors too. Mad. This took the spine out of Will’s list and, although he had some good play with gnawholes to have some high-scoring late turns, he couldn’t do enough for a comeback.

Result: 67-37 Win

That’s two great games so far, and two pretty solid wins against good players!

Game 3 - Surge of Slaughter, vs Keir’s Daughters of Khaine

I hadn’t met Keir before, as I think he plays more at a club a little further away, but he was a lovely opponent and we had a really fun game. I was surprised by his list - the SoG Shrine is quite scary, and the Cauldron can be a problem too. And then there’s all the snakes.

What turned out to be my undoing in this game was the nonsense activation wars falling against me. We had a pretty cagey first couple of turns for the most part - the Prosecutors got smashed into the front line of snakes turn one and did exactly what I wanted them to do - wiped a unit (and chipped a lot off of another in conjunction with the Knight-Judicators’ shooting), then stuck around with a ward and took a whole turn for Keir to clear, pinning him in his deployment in the centre. Unfortunately Keir then took a double turn, which reversed the balance and took away any advantage that the slowdown had given me.

There were three defining moments in this game that sent it Keir’s way. First, activation wars - we ended up with my Questor Soulsworn and Reclusians (with Terminos) stood next to each other, each charged by a unit of Blood Sisters. The unit of sisters opposite the Questors rolled an 8 to charge, meaning they had strike first. The Bloodwrack Viper had also charged the side of the Reclusians to try and make the Terminos fight last. It failed, the sisters failed to crystal touch the Reclusians to make them fight last, but then the second unit had a go and succeeded. What this meant is that his unit of sisters struck first and killed a few questors, my character drank his potion and fought second into the other unit but was not allowed to drag the fights-last Reclusians ahead of other stuff in normal activations, breaking the combo. The first unit of Sisters had also declared their once per game fights twice ability. This gives the second fight strike last, but of course they also have strike first from their big charge, so they cancel out and get to fight again straight away, wiping the Questors. The Reclusians still have to wait because they’re striking last, so their unit of sisters and the viper take the back out of the unit. Brutal combo, well played by Keir.

Prosecutors delaying Keir's snakes before they absolutely destroy my infantry. Credit: Rich Nutter

Second defining moment, I completely shanked some shooting to leave the scary Shrine on 2 wounds when it really should have died. Leading to the third important moment, Iridan charges the sisters in the middle of the board and succeeds the roll to bounce over with the rampage and kill the Shrine instead. I desperately need a character kill to unlock Master the Paths and get back on track for scoring. Unfortunately the Cauldron of Blood has cast a spell that means nothing can be set up within 12”, a spell we’d joked repeatedly earlier would never be useful. It was game-winningly useful in this moment, as Iridan couldn’t be placed in combat range of the Shrine. To add insult to injury, they then fully whiffed their attack into the sisters and died in shame.

Result: 43-57 Loss

Keir played his list super well, and we had a great time! It’s heartbreaking to see the specific moments that lose you a game, but I’m glad I can identify them most of the time now.

Day one done, it was time for a great Mexican dinner at long standing local restaurant Chesters. Check it out if you’re in Worcester!

Game 4 - Bountiful Equinox, vs Laura’s Kharadron Overlords

Another event, another battle of the pod co-hosts! It’s always great to get to play Laura at events, as we don’t often get a chance to otherwise.

Old rivals! Vs Laura's KO. Credit: Rich Nutter

I’m going to cut this one a bit short and recommend that you instead listen to our next episode of Three and Two: A Matched Play Age of Sigmar Podcast, where we go through it together. It was a very back and forth game, and an absolute hoot. In the end we had to talk through the final turns, and established that we’d both score another battle tactic with some clutch rolls (we rolled the important dice). This left the result super close!

Result: 63-59 Win

Seriously, it was one tactic away from a different result. Really fun game, Laura is a superb opponent and this is one of my favourite games I’ve ever played with someone.

Game 5 - Liferoots, vs Rory’s Nighthaunt

Game 5, and I’m 3-1. Rory is the only person left on 4-0, so we’re top table, and maybe there’s a chance of my getting 1st? Actually, we work out that Rory is ahead of me by 75 points in VP (the first tiebreaker), meaning that I’d have to beat him in an almost 80-0 blowout to be the highest-placed 4-1. Still, there’s a chance at the podium.

Unfortunately (for me) Rory has leaned hard into the Nighthaunt’s current meta and has brought 7 (yes 7) units of Pyregheists! They’re efficient and pump out good damage, plus the mortal wound ability is a nice bonus. They’re clumped around Cruciators who do a ton to mitigate damage, and then once per game Olynder is adding tons of them back. I identify, correctly, that I need to fully focus on one unit at a time to remove them from play and minimise Olynder’s impact. It’s Liferoots so there are only 2 objectives to worry about, so I can’t distract myself there.

I do get distracted though and can’t quite bring myself to commit. I had a major computational error here - in thinking about what Pyregheists do (d3 mortals to something within 6” while they contest an objective) I am imagining the scenario where they are advancing on me, and do not clock what Rory has done, deploying most of his units in a kind of star around his objective, with one model from each toeing onto it then chaining the units forward. This gives the mortals a huge area of effect and also makes it hard to engage anything head on without dragging in multiple units.

Rory's Nighthaunt death star, featuring bad Stormcast tactics. Credit: Rich Nutter

I take some bait I shouldn’t and commit my Reclusians in the centre, where the Vault of Souls has also been cast. As if I needed another way to take mortal damage. I try to snipe out the coach with a prosecutor charge, but they bounce and die in return. So I try again with 3 resurrected prosecutors? Daft. With them wasted, I commit my Vigilors and Iridan on one flank and Questors on the other, now fighting on three fronts rather than chewing through one unit at a time. Predictably I lose horrifically.

Result: 10-77 Loss

Congrats to Rory, who takes the 5-0 and the first place trophy. He was a lovely opponent, and is a great dude. I know how I’d approach this game differently now, sitting back and forcing something to come to me on my terms. It still would have been an uphill slog, but I never had a chance the way I went about it.

That’s it, I finish on 3-2 (podcast number) after 5 brilliant games. I’m also humbled to take home the favourite opponent trophy, meaning my opponents must have enjoyed themselves as much as me! Truly pleasing, given I could have given my votes to literally any of them.

Best Sports! The goal of all good players. Credit: Rich Nutter

Dan always runs a great event, and there’s another one right at the start of January that I’m looking forward to. I’m determined to field a fully painted army for that one so that I can compete for the painting and best overall trophies as well!

Next Time

This coming weekend (edit: actually in the past as this is published) I’ll be at ShadowCon, a 1,000 point narrative AoS event. It’ll be my 4th time at the event, and it’s grown to be a great crowd of people with a huge amount of effort put in by players and organisers alike. I’m planning on taking my Gitmob, for a rare chance to be put on the table! We need to make a custom “treasure hunter” character, so I’m hoping that I’ll have had time to do something appropriate by the time this is published. Find out next time, I guess.

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