10/20/2007: Hordes Stampede! Event

On October 20th we had a Hordes Stampede hosted by Miniature Market locally here in St. Louis. We had a large turnout for this event – large enough that we had to run out for an extra table so that we would have enough. In addition to a fair number of regulars we had a couple younger guys who were back in town for the weekend from college and a few other locals who aren’t regulars but came by anyway. Between the sixteen participants, two employees, and the pressganger the store was packed.

Unlike the Swiss tournament format that is typically used for Privateer Press game events the goal of the Stampede was to claim a table by defeating its current defender then defending the table against new attackers for as long as possible. In addition the defender would suffer attrition, forcing him to hold on for as long he good with his dwindling forces. To help offset his mounting losses the defender’s side of each table had a few extra pieces of defensible terrain – a couple trenches and a couple linear obstacles to seek cover behind.

My other tournament reports so far have centered more around the games I played and their results. This time I want to take a break and instead talk about observations regarding the Stampede format itself, including some of the things that worked and some that didn’t.

Although I don’t want to go into too much detail about how I fared I do want to give a little information on my list and how I went about using it just to provide a point of reference for my observations. Although a lot of local events have been held at the 750-point level we held a 500-point Stampede. With sixteen player and a little over five hours to get games in we went with the lower point level so that the players could get in as many games as possible. So I brought the following list:

• Saeryn, Omen of Everblight
• Angelius
• Nephilim Soldier
• Seraph
• Shredder
• The Forsaken
• Raptors x5

Saeryn played a support roll; Blight Bringers if able but more often using Breath Stealer to prevent charges/on assassination runs and Equilibrium to fill up opponent beasts. The Angelius was my assassination beast; I used it’s speed and maneuverability to get at targets of opportunity and also to keep it back out of immediate danger. The Seraph was there to provide access to Slipstream as well as to help thin out any infantry I had to face. The Shredder was a transfer/Tenacity battery (and backup attacker) and the Forsaken filled it’s usual Fury Management/Blight Bomb role. The Nephilim was help for the Angelius with either early engagement or “up-and-over” assassination or he would block charge lanes to the more important targets.

Raptors took on a beast hunting role. When I started playing them I used them as mobile gun platforms but recently I’ve seen what they could do in melee and have started using them in that role more. Since three can bring down a heavy and two a light, I used them to charge into opponents’ forces, hit, and fall back, covering their escape/raising their effective MAT with Breath Stealer if necessary.

That was longer than I intended; back on track…

The most prominent new aspect of Stampede was the attrition that defenders would suffer after each successful defense of their table. A beast destroyed at the end of the game would return in the next game with one permanent point of damage in each of its branches. Similarly units who ended the game with half of their number destroyed or removed from play would return with one less member in the unit the following game. If the unit ended the game entirely destroyed it would return with two less members in the following game. These penalties were cumulative so that a beast lost repeatedly would return with more and more permanent damage.

In theory the attrition rule seemed like it would seriously hinder a defender, but in practice it seemed not to be as big of a penalty as we first thought. I lost a single Raptor every game except the second to last (where I lost two) so that unit never suffered attrition. My Forsaken was killed most games, but solos didn’t suffer attrition. My biggest loss was the death of my Nephilim every game, though that was part of his job. Granted due to a misreading we read branch as a aspect and didn’t damage beats as much as we should have, but that never made a difference in my experience – the Nephilim pretty much folded in one round every game anyway. I also lost my Shredder in the second to last game, but he just sat in the back for the final game and provided Tenacity anyway.

I heard similar things from some of the other players. And there were a couple players starting with severely reduced forces, those were apparently the exception and not the norm. On top of that we were playing at 500 points instead of 750. At the higher point level it would seem attrition would have even less of an effect. While there would be more models to lose, the 750-point level allows for more redundancy in a player’s game plan which in turn would mean they would need to lose even more to start to really effect how they would go about defending their end of the table. Given that there were three players that were able to claim a table early and defend it for 4+ games, I think that the attrition rules could have been a bit more severe.

Although attrition wasn’t very harsh, I was glad we were able to get in a decent number of games throughout the afternoon. Unlike Steamroller’s prize support being directed in who won the most total games, Stampede medals would go to the person who held a table the longest, the person who broke the longest defense of a table, most beasts destroyed, and the best painted cavalry model or warbeast. This provided an interesting change in dynamic away from the win-centric Steamroller metagame to a system where you not only had to try to win, but you had to balance trying to win fast (to get the most games in at defense) with keeping your losses minimal. The beast hunter award also meant that even if you weren’t in the hunt for longest defense or blockade runner you still had something to play for. And the painting award was just gravy. My comments on how painting isn’t necessary to play can be found elsewhere on this site but I still enjoy the painting hobby and seeing others’ finished works.

The final observation I want to make was regarding army selection. Of the fifteen army lists I can recall people playing (of the 16 that showed), we had 6 Circle players who brought all of their warlocks with Krueger being the only duplicate. Three Skorne players brought Zaal, Makeda, and Xerxis and the one Trollblood brought Grim Angus. However all five Legion players brought Saeryn. I was more than a little bit surprised by this – I had thought all of the Legion warlocks would do well in the scenario and wound up choosing Saeryn randomly but apparently the general consensus was that she was the hands-down pick for the event. She’s definitely a great warlock, but I’m really a little disappointed that she was a clear choice. It would have been nice to see a larger selection of Legion warlocks during the day.

All in all I think the local community enjoyed the event. There were a few requests to do it again at a later date at the 750-point level, but I’m not sure that that’s a good idea. I think the 500-point level helped make attrition mean a little more and also let us get in more game. Still, I hope we do this again some time in the future – it was a fun break from Steamroller.