#134: Mayhem 2018 Tournament Overview

Well, as what was expected to be my last event before Age of Sigmar dropped it's new edition, I wanted to see out the current edition how I started it...

Playing a sub-par army and getting rinsed by everyone.

Mayhem was a 1500 point, 3-Game Matched Play tournament a few weeks ago that I managed to clear my schedule for. And while I originally wanted to take one of several other armies, with the time I had, I simply wasn't going to have them painted. So, as a last hurrah for the edition (and the army for a while), I once again took to the battlefield with the unreliable but entertaining Clan Pestilens.

Verminlord Corruptor (General, Verminous Valour, Vexler's Shroud)
Plague Furnace (Liber Bubonicus)
Plague Priest
Arch-Warlorck (Allies)
40 Monks (Battleline)
40 Monks (Battleline)
20 Monks (Battleline)
Congregation of Filth (Warscroll Battalion)
Balewind Vortex

Rather than split the tournament into three battle reports, I've chosen instead to do a single article on the event as a whole. Going into this tournament, my goal was simple. Don't come last. I was 1.3 points off claiming the Best in Allegiance: Pestilens icon, and as long as I didn't hit the bottom of the barrel, I'd be alright. I say that, but despite the tournament not being huge, the player pool was of the highest calibre. Some of the best players in the country had converged on this event to roll dice and take names. I would need some good luck surrounding match ups...

My first opponent was a young player who I'd played at the last event at the store. I'd beaten his Seraphon soundly, and after the game, we'd talked about things he could have done differently to give me a lot of trouble. Unfortunately for me, he'd taken that advice (along with the advice of several other players) and showed up with a Kroaknado, a ton of skinks and one angry, angry Carnosaur.

The scenario was Battle for the Pass, and I wasted no time in pushing up onto the middle objectives. My Warlock was shut down from casting Balewind, which made his impact on the game very minimal do to an unhealthy amount of magic missiles to the face from Kroak in the bottom of turn one. The game was incredibly close, with objectives changing hands several times. I got a little bit greedy and made a rush for his exposed rear objective, but he managed to scramble enough to scurry back with skinks and push me off. In the end, scenario points were dead even, and he beat me on victory points. With no way of damaging Kroak enough to threaten him, and with limited ways to stop his magic, the arcane onslaught just brutalised my army. It was a really close game, and despite taking a minor loss, I was stoked to see my opponent taking advice from older players on board and achieving better outcomes as a result.

Lurking in the bottom half of the field, my next opponent was running a Stormcast list. He was very new to the matched play side of things, despite having a beautifully painted army, and I believe this was his fourth game. The scenario was Scorched Earth, and this was his list.

Knight-Venator (General, Consumate Commander, Luckstone)
5 Judicators
5 Judicators
5 Liberators
2 Fulminators
5 Retributors
3 Prosecutors with Hammers
3 Longstrike Raptors
3 Longstrike Raptors
Gryph Hound

The first thing that stood out was that there was a lot of shooting, but not a lot to threaten my objectives. The Liberators and Retributors deployed on the table, so I knew that I had plenty of time to handle them. What I wasn't expecting was for the shooting to kill my Arch Warlock off a Balewind, and the Plague Furnace on turn one. The Fulminators failed a 6" charge on my lines, which really saved my bacon, and the counter attack from the horde of frenzied rats made short work of them. From there, my army launched forward, slamming into his lines, and cutting down the infantry units with relative ease. It came down to a numbers game, and my opponent just didn't feel like he had the tools to combat 100 rats with what he had left on the board after the Fulminators failed to do anything. In the end, numbers won it for me, as I was able to mob his objectives and burn them for the win. He was a great sport about the game, and we had a chat afterward about strong Stormcast builds. This left me on a Major Win and a Minor Loss.

It was a bizarre set of results that saw my next match up against an undefeated Khorne player. There were only a handful of players on two wins, and my Minor Loss put me ahead of most other players who had gotten a major loss. My initial reaction was one of dread, as the Khorne player had, in his first two games, smashed off a Fyreslayers and a Nurgle Daemon army with his Letterbomb/Gore Pilgrims/Wrath of Khorne Bloodthirster list. Anyone who has played either of those armies knows how resilient they are, and he'd just waded through them in no time at all. Great.

But I had a plan.

The scenario was Knife to the Heart. I knew that I outdropped him, and I knew that if he went first, I was toast. So, I accepted what was going to happen, and screened my entire army with a long screen of 40 Monks. They were going to die, no matter what, but I was going to take the Letterbomb with me...

At least, that was the plan until I failed to cast Rabid Fever... my Pile In and Attack upon death didn't go off, which meant that the Letters flew in, inflicted 53 mortal wounds and removed them from the game. From that point onward, I had some of the best luck of my life. If I'd lost turn two priority, that virtually unharmed (bar a few casualties from 40 exploding rats) Bloodletter unit would hit all of my characters and other units, pin me in place, and just hack me to pieces. As it was, I didn't lose a single priority roll for the rest of the game. My 20-strong Monk unit counter-punched the Bloodletters, slaying all of them.

From there, the game took a violent turn, with stuff dying left, right and centre. My remaining 40-man unit of Monks managed to kill the Bloodthirster, a Bloodstoker, a Slaughterpriest and 10 Blood Warriors. The Corruptor decided to roll hot, streaking up a flank to kill ten Reavers, Riptooth and the Bloodsecrator!

In the upset of the tournament, I managed to not only score a victory, but also table my opponent!

Once again, it came down purely to numbers. Having 100 models on the board, no matter how squishy, still needs a lot of killing to get through. My opponent in game three was an absolute legend, and this was actually our first game against each other, despite attending quite a few events.

With kill points playing a big part in scoring, and managing two wins and a minor loss, I landed 3rd place, hitting the podium with Pestilens! This was a huge achievement for me, and a great send off for the army and the edition. I was under no illusion that luck had gone my way at the event, as if match ups had gone in other directions, I might have faced armies that I knew I couldn't beat. But Lady Luck plays a part in every event, and I was stoked to have her favour at this tournament.

My opponent from Game Three claimed second place (thanks to his truly horrific Points Killed tally), while an undefeated Seraphon army took out the crown.

With a trophy for Pestilens, I was happy to put them onto the display shelves and move on to other armies. They'd earned their place there!

Are you starting a new army for the new edition?

Thanks for reading,
Gabe