The time before Thyra & her arrival
I spent the first few months playing Mk3 and losing every single game (my record was something like 0 wins and 15 loses before I got my first win). I was at the point of giving up on Protectorate and starting playing with the Circle force I have been amassing in the background. The big change with this was finding Thyra, she plays completely unlike any caster in the faction. Everything she uses is quick anyway but her feat speeds it up, she can also use carnage to buff the melee ability of everything and then use Gates of Death to get to safety (or a flag for control). My first game with her I won, having spent 4-6 games with other casters trying to learn them and get the win I was flabbergasted. I also really enjoyed the game (and not just because I won). The main thing I think was actually being able to make waves and force my opponent to react to me rather than it being the other way around. In short I was hooked and was gutted that this was the last game before I went on holiday!
Two weeks later I came back and played three more games, the first was a game with High Reclaimer which I lost. I then played the next two with Thyra and again, against the odds, I won both. With all the Thyra games I’d won on control, something I struggled with even in Mk2. I also noticed that her army tended to get battered but so long as I could start the clock ticking in my favour I stood a good chance of winning.
First Mk3 Tournament
So having won three games ever I decided I needed more experience. I signed up late for a local tournament and took Thyra and a Sevy1 (ARM skew) list with two Colossals and support. The tournament was DC0 so I knew I wouldn’t get list locked into playing the Colossals into something really inappropriate.
Game 1
First game was into Skorne, I think the guy was equally struggling with them as I have with Protectorate he’d also very little experience of playing against Protectorate (even less than my experience of playing Skorne!). So I dropped Thyra because I was on a wave with her and with Grevious Wounds and Anatomical Precision she should be fairly solid. The game was an interesting exercise into just how irritating playing against Protectorate can be. Between stealth (on most units, solos and Thyra), choir hymns to stop shooting and my silly threat ranges thanks to the feat my army caught the Skorne flat footed and battered them. I played for control and with Thyra camping behind a solid wall of jacks and daughters on one side whilst Flame Bringers trashed and caused confusion the other I won 5-0.
Game 2
Here I played Simon who I played in my first ever tournament and got crushed, this time things were much more even. I dropped Thyra again as I was more comfortable with her and again Grievous Wounds into hordes can’t be bad can it?
The game was carnage, by the end I was left with Thyra, a Vassal and Nicea which was the minimum criteria I needed to clinch it. My main solid point in this was going second to start my control counter ticking first and feeding in daughters each turn to stop Simon scoring control points. I also battered a lot of his force leaving a mountain king and a few solos. The highlight of the game was the move to take the win, whilst Thyra cleared her flag, the vassal contested the middle zone (the scenario was The Pit) Nicea used Parry and Acrobatics to leapfrog the mountain king several solos and land in contest range of the other flag – 5-4 on scenario and possibly the best game of WMH I’ve ever played.
With 14 players and only three rounds the tournament was going to go down to scenario points. I was in a really strong position with this and all I had to do was win and get a single control point to guarantee winning overall. The other three undefeated players had to win and score big to win overall. Sadly my record and the way rounds are drawn left me playing the person in position two overall, this was Konrad who also plays Skorne and is one of the best players in the north west – fun!
Game3
I dropped Thyra for a third time (crutching much?!) as with the sheer number of beasts in both of his lists I knew the colossal wouldn’t stand a chance. The game itself was a master class of how to play Skorne and how to deal with high defence units. With minimal effort Konrad bowled daughters into each other to clear charge lanes and threaten my jacks. His caster was Morghul1 who is one of the softer Skorne casters so I knew an assassination was on the cards and with Thyra and her feat I thought I really stood a good chance. However I needed that control point first so in a greedy move I dropped Thyra onto a flag to score. She was very vulnerable but seeing as the Avatar took out two lights that were her immediate threat and I had placed both Fire of Salvation and Hand of Judgement to cover the approaching heavies I was fairly content that with stealth and Def17 she would be fine. I also thought that as he needed to win on control (to win overall) he wouldn’t go for the assassination – how wrong I was.
In another good showing of his understanding of the game Konrad didn’t even break sweat. In a simple move he claimed two of the three flags on the board. Then he threw Blood of Martyrs at Thyra, knocking her down and causing damage. Then all that remained was his Warlock solo to walk up to her kill her (ARM14 may as well have been paper) and score a point on that flag too. So I lost on assassination (3-1 on scenario).
That loss meant I was out of the running to win but managed a respectable 3rd Overall which I was more than happy with having only just won my first WMH game a month before. My win ratio was also 5 wins in 21 games which was around 20% which I was more than happy with.
At this point I knew Blood and Oil was only a few weeks away. I played another 10 games in practice and managed a couple more wins but as I was mostly playing other casters trying to find my other two lists for the tournament. A game of note was dropping Kreoss1 into Legion and almost tabling my opponent – the drop was a heavily in my favour which helped but it was also the only other game I’d won at this point without using Thyra.
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