Monday, June 18, 2012

Birthday Tournament Weekend

This sunday was my 32nd birthday, so in between all the awesome thrown at me by my lovely girl I made sure there was not just one but two tournaments to get my game on at Infinity.



I forgot to take photos of my games saturday in my emthusiasm, so here's newcomer Kane taking on freshly graduated baby seal Nathan (as heard from episode 4 of Feat Turn). The saturday tourney was teams of 3, and Kane was the third in my team the Immoren Avengers. His Iron (man) Lich took both his matches to win the day for Black Widow Nailyon and I, she playing Sorscha2 while I Hulk'd out with Kromac. Here we see Asphyxious about to assassinate Haley1 in a 35pt match.



Sunday morning, about ten minutes before we were due to leave, I said "fuck it" and grabbed the soldering iron to finish the madness that is my Plasma Strider. I followed Michael Pokomys brilliant guide with my own embellishments, and I'm fairly happy with the result. My plan was to get a second Storm Strider to run Haley2's NQ StormBringers theme list, but with GenCon looming I'm thinking of turning the spare plasma ball I have into some kind of objective marker.



A few minutes behind thanks to my last minute gluing amidst fears of fire and explosions, we made it to Infinity in plenty of time for sundays Australian Highlander Qualifier Heat. My first match was against Bohdi's Skorne, so I chose my shiny list with glee and went to town. His Bronzeback got my Plasma Strider thanks to its Beat Back animus, but in the end Morghoul had been baited forward without Admonition, and Runewood was the final blow to end him.



Game 2 was against Heath, whom I knew was bringing either Stormwall (which I really disn't want to face) or Caine2. I opted for my Haley2 list, the bonded Grenadier my choice to try to out assassinate Caine - and it worked! Four focus with three arcing fire shots is very nice, but it was Victoria herself who got the killing blow - charging into melee with a Stormlance to get Caine in range for a well placed Arcane Bolt. Victoryfor the list against what I had specifically designed it to kill!

Game 3 was not so great. In a genius move I not only didn't feat with Constance taking turn two of the game against Lylyth 2, I also chose to hide my red haired girl behind but a few Precursor Knights instead of the battle engine in her list. It's yet another of the staples that I'd just not faced (the other being Molik Karn) that lead to my underestimation of Lylyths threat range, and caused me to lose without rolling a single dice against Mitchell.



Round 4 came down to being diced against a baby seal. Bryan Captained "The Tigers, They Red, They Fly" on saturday and I took down his Kaya2 despite a great alpha strike - this time it was the other way around. With Haley2's feat getting me the distance to get my own alpha strike, I completely failed to kill the young druidess sitting on a single firy after a 3 man CRA, boosted Hunter shot, telekinesis to turn her back on the fully loaded Stormclad and ended my turn two inches from a Feral Warpwolf. Kaya survived the game with one health, Haley and my pride not so much.



The day went to Brad playing a single Lylyth1 list, seen here getting the killing blow on Grissel1 with a Shepherd. The table was surrounded with onlookers, both Brad and Nic were in their element, and it couldn't have been a greater end to the day.



Well, to the tournament anyway - here's the desert my beautiful girl presented me with after a few hours of Diablo 3 together, a cuddle on the couch watching Masterchef, and a hearty homecooked meal. It's the offcuts of a Missisipe Mudcake, a rare Australian commodity known as a banana, hazelnut ganachè, ice cream, and chocolate sauce - warmed to my delight.

Tonight we're heading out to TGI Friday's with the family and close mates where there's a Jack Daniels burger and drink with my name on it.

Oh, and keep an eye on twitter - the offcut mudcake was for what I expect to be an epic cale that I'll tweet pictures of.