Wednesday, February 4, 2009

First CTA Match

Last Tuesday night, I had the chance to play in my first ever CTA match at my FLGS, which really isn't local, but I digress. I was playing Menoth and had my first game of the league against Cygnar. I originally wanted to play someone other than Cygnar because that's who I play on a weekly basis and was tired of getting thrashed.

My List:

Amon 490/500, VPs: 19
*Revenger
*Devout
*Castigator
*Crusader
Full Choir
Vassal
Gorman
Wrack

*NOTE* I only took one wrack because that's all I have assembled and no proxy's allowed in CTA.

My opponent was kind enough to take Darius, a warcaster I hadn't played against, and the match was 500 points. Since he was taking Darius, I thought I would bring my favorite monk, Amon. This is my first CTA league I've ever played in and didn't realize you had to roll for scenario (from what I read, its something new they implemented). I rather like this idea because it makes you bring a pretty balanced list. Unfortunately for my opponent, we rolled Mudslide for the scenario.

His List:

Darius 488/500 VPs: 17
*Halfjacks
*Centurion
*Hammersmith
*Ironclad
Journeyman
Aiyanna & Holt

The first turn saw me running my jacks up and then the choir sang "no shooty". Gorman threw some smoke and the Vassal put enliven on my Castigator. He then casted full throttle with Darius and ran up his jacks. The journeyman put arcane shield on Darius and Aiyanna and Holt moved up on my right flank.

The second turn saw me sandblast his Guardian with a critical, knocking him back a whopping 5 inches and then doing no damage on his Ironclad. The Vassal then put enliven on the Revenger and the choir sang "no shooty" again.

He proceeded to run up his Jacks again and then shot at my Revenger with Holt, which I forgot about "no shooty" but did remember enliven. This kept my jack safe and then his turn was over. He was in the edge of the mudslide in the middle of the board and I was right off of it.

I don't think he realized how mobile Amon can get his jacks and left Darius wide open for the charge across the rough terrain. I proceeded to set up the turn perfectly with Amon going into meditative stance and pulling a focus from a wrack. He used all eight focus and Darius was about to get thrashed. That is, until I forgot to use my feat and totally blew my turn.

My Crusader then tried to wreck a Hammersmith and started up the synergy spell. He did minimal damage and then he's turn was over. My Castigator still had enough speed to reach Darius and with Infuse and Synergy going, he was hitting on a +4 attack and damage rolls. I only needed fives to hit the marshmellow man and he took a good beating as his armor was up to 23 from arcane shield.

*Side Note* Amon's Synergy spell is +1 to attack and damage rolls per MODEL, not attacks.

My turn then ended and it was Darius' turn to throw down. At this point I forgot what really happened but I do know my opponent chewed up a lot of his clock time with activations and such. I also didn't realize Darius had dismantle and the poor Castigator was a wreck marker with Darius camping on two focus and then his turn was over.

With the Castigator being wrecked, it opened up a charge lane for Amon and the Devout. Amon upkept Synergy and then charged to only do minimal damage. I remembered to use my feat and then the Devout charged and killed Darius.

This match up totally favored Amon with the scenario being Mudslide and his ability to negate rough terrain. I would like to play against Darius in a good ole fashion Caster kill scenario and see what the fuss is all about.

Til next time...

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