Quake City Rumble 2015: Tournament and Game Overview (Part 1)

The Quake City Rumble was recently held on July 24-26, 2015. QCR is the largest five-round Warhammer Fantasy tournament on the West Coast and is held in San Francisco, California. This year, the tournament moved from the Fort Mason Center near the waterfront to the San Francisco County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park. This was a great change. The new venue was much closer to food and libations as well as better lodging opportunities. It was also a better spot for the tournament. The room that we were in had increased air flow to alleviate the unbearable heat and stench that usually appears in a room of a hundred gamers, had better bathrooms (which didn't require a stair climb), and was a much nicer place to hang out (as the botanical gardens were right outside the venue). I hope the tournament stays at this venue next year as it made for a much more pleasing gaming experience that past venues. The tournament was also using the new Fat Mats made by Frontline Gaming which made dice rolling and miniature moving much more pleasant than the old sand boards.
The tournament didn't start until Saturday morning, but pre-gaming and set-up began Friday evening. I arrived to the tournament on Friday to help with set-up and within an hour the tables were set, mats were out, and boards had terrain. It was the easiest tournament set-up that I had seen in quite a while. I think the ability to just roll out a 4' x 6' mat is much easier than loading in heavy plywood pieces.

The rest of Friday night was spent checking in, catching up with friends, and scoping out armies that had already been set-up. I also got to play a quick practice game against Shayne Wharton (@robespiorc if you want to follow his lame ass on Twitter: tell him I sent you to tempt him with a Hell or High Watermelon beer from Amendment 21 brewery). The game did not go well for Shayne. He was playing a high comping (14) Beastman army that was just not prepared to deal with the combined might of fast cavalry and skirmishers. We quit at Turn 3 to spend the rest of the night meeting up with everyone and preparing for the first day of the tournament.

Round #1: Bill Curry - Vampire Counts
For Round 1 of the tournament I had grudged Bill Curry (@wchammertime) from West Coast Hammertime. You may have heard all of his sh!t talking on the latest episode of his podcast. It wasn't very nice and he was really expecting to absolutely destroy me. We were playing the MEGA DROUGHT scenario. In this scenario, deployment was as per Meeting Engagement meaning that Bill and I would be playing corner deployment with only 12" between deployment zones. Good for Bill, bad for me. But, it also meant that we would have to roll off for units that would start off the board. I rolled a "1" on my Level 4, meaning that only my BSB would start on the board. Bill rolled several "1"s and was missing two units of zombies and two units of dogs. This would allow me to place several scouting units in his backfield, behind his skeleton unit and black knights and play keep away for several turns.

In this scenario, Bill and I were playing for a simple 100 point win. Something my army excels at. Bonus points were awarded for having more models on the central water feature at the end of the game (2 points), destroying the largest unit by model count (1 point) (mine was the twelve man scout unit and Bill's was his skeleton warriors), and keeping your highest point unit alive (1 point) (mine was one of the Glade Rider units and Bills was the black knights).

Bill's army for the event was a very strong, knight based Vampire Counts army. His list comped a solid 7 which was only a single point higher than my 6. His list included:

• Vampire Lord (Level 4, Lore of Vampires, Quickblood, Red Fury, The Other Trickster's Shard, Talisman of Preservation, Dragonhelm, Sword of Anti-Heroes, riding a Nightmare) (This guy is a beast with five or more attacks at strength five or higher on a 1+ armor save and a 4++ ward save. I had to make sure that this guy never made it into combat with anything of mine or my units would be very short lived.)
• Vampire Lord (Level 4, Lore of Death, Aura of Dark Majesty, Master of the Black Arts, Obsidian Amulet, Black Periapt, Enchanted Shield, riding a Nightmare) (This guy was Bill's major caster allowing him to re-roll one of the winds of magic dice, save unused power or dispel dice, and throw a Leadership 10 Spirit Leech around the table. This guy would be a big pain in my ass if I couldn't deal with him quickly as Spirit Leech (and the other direct damage magic missiles) would be an easy way to kill of my BSB and other characters (though my Level 4 would have a 2++ ward save).)
• Wight King (Battle Standard Bearer, Nigthshroud, Dragonbane Gem, Ironcurse Icon, riding a skeletal steed)
• Necromancer (Level 2, Lore of Vampires, Dispel Scroll, Ruby Ring of Ruin)
• Skeleton Warriors (40 models, full command)
• Zombie Horde (30 models, standard bearer and musician) x2
• Dire Wolves (5 models, champion) x3
• Black Knights (12 models, musician and standard bearer, Razor Standard)
• Spirit Host (1 model) x2

Bill and I set up and prepared to play the game. But before we started, I got him on film for a couple seconds while he contemplated his impending doom. We were planning on doing several short videos throughout the game, but once we started playing, we got too engaged in the game and the sh!t talking to keep up with the videos. Take a look at the video HERE.

Also, Bill and I had placed a rather salty bet on the game. Nothing too serious, just a chance for lost pride. The bet was as follows: whoever lost had to call their child (Bill has a wonderful daughter and I just had my son two months before the tournament) and tell them that they lost. Of course, if I lost I would really be telling my wife and my son wouldn't care that I lost (or even recognize that I was on the phone), but it would be a sad day for Bill to explain that he lost to me, especially as he was going in undefeated in games against me. That's right, in the seven previous games that I had played Bill, I had never managed to defeat him. I felt it was about time I was due. And boy was I due.

Bill stole the first turn (what a dick), and surged forward in the hopes of killing off my BSB with magic. His skeletons, that were in the center of the board, turned to face my scouts behind his lines and the black knights surged forward. Bill's reinforcements came on the board in the hopes of pinning my scouting units, but because they were limited to a single basic move, he was forced to leave open large gaps for my units to dance around. In the magic phase Bill rolled decent, even with his re-roll, and went for a boosted Spirit Leech that was dispelled. He then cast the boosted strength spell but only managed to do a single hit which was blocked by my BSB's charmed shield. With Bill's best chance to kill my BSB ending in a fizzle, I began to pounce.

My Level 4 joined the BSB grating the extremely important MR2 (plus wound tokens when I cast spells). The Waywatchers moved to focus on the black knights while staying away from the zombies dropping the unit down to just two models in a single round of firing. The remaining scout shooting began to take apart the skeletons slowly dropping models from the unit. For the next several turns, Bill would focus on trying to raise his units back up, but would be denied by my magic. Now that my Level 4 was on the board, I was more concerned with more models than the magic missiles.

Turn 2, I killed the necromancer with targeted shooting by the Waystalkers. And continued to pepper the skeletons. All three units of Glade Riders joined the fray allowing me to take out more than a whole rank of the evil dead. The Waywatchers continued to blast away at the black nights killing them outright and leaving just the few characters that would take several more turns to go through. For the next several turns, I killed off the skeletons, dogs, zombies, and characters basically wiping Bill from the board. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't classy, but it was devastating. I managed a huge win and grabbed all four bonus points leaving Bill with just a four point loss. The game ended quickly as once Bill's magic supremacy was gone, he was unable to catch any of my units. In truth, this was a really bad match-up for Bill even though our comps were fairly similar. But it was a win for me. And after losing all my previous games, I was glad to take it. After the game, we waited for lunch, and Bill had to call his daughter and let her know that he lost. It was a very satisfying call.

Bill would go on to get 70th place at the tournament, but he would get my Best Opponent vote for the tournament because he took his beating so well.

Round #2: Jeremy Campbell - WoC
Going into Round 2 I was sitting at 20 points and was matched up against a guy I had never heard of, but who I know had lost his last game. After going to the score-keeper to see what was up, I found out - along with Jeremy Campbell - that they had entered the scores wrong and rather than simply re-match everyone they just had Jeremy and I play each other as our comp scores were both a 6. This would make the sixth time I played Jeremy in seven tournaments (luckily we didn't play at the Masters last year) which was a little disappointing for both of us. For Jeremy because my army was really designed to take apart his list, and for me because Jeremy and I always play and I was hoping that in a 100-person tournament I would play some new guys I had never played before. Alas, it was not to be and Jeremy and I lined up against each other for another battle.

Jeremy's Warriors list was similar to his West Coast GT list but a little heavier hitting as it included two Chimeras. His list also comped a 6 and included:

• Chaos Lord (Mark of Tzeentch, Dragonhelm, Talisman of Preservation, The Other Trickster's Shard, riding a Daemonic Mount)
• Chaos Lord (Mark of Tzeentch, Talisman of Endurance, Potion of Toughness, Flaming Breath, Scaled Skin, riding a Daemonic Mount)
• Chaos Sorcerer Lord (Level 4, Lore of Tzeentch, Mark of Tzeentch, Armour of Destiny, Dispel Scroll, Dragonbane Gem, riding a Disc of Tzeentch)
• Exalted Hero (Battle Standard Bearer, Mark of Tzeentch, Warrior Bane, Obsidian Lodestone, riding a Chaos Steed)
• Marauder Horsemen (15 models, full command, Mark of Tzeentch)
• Chaos Chariot (Mark of Tzeentch)
• Chaos Warhounds (5 models) x3
• Marauder Horsemen (5 models, musician and standard bearer)
• Chimera x2

Round 2 was the GREATEST OF ALL DISASTERS scenario in which the object was to hold onto a keg (objective token) for the entire game and try and gain your opponent's keg. The keg could only be given to a non-flying core unit with either a standard or champion and could not be a unit with a character. This limited Jeremy to placing his keg in the five man marauder unit basically guaranteeing that I was going to be able to get his keg. My keg went to a 10-man unit of Glade Riders that under the rules would not have to start of the board. This gave me a significant advantage in the bonus points as I could keep my keg unit away from Jeremy for the entire game.

Deployment for the round was as per Dawn Attack so units were placed in the different flanks of the deployment zone. My single unit was placed in the center and most of Jeremy's units were also placed in the center. But both Chimeras ended up on the same flank while the keg unit ended up on the other flank completely exposed. Bonus points in this game were awarded for holding a keg at the end of the game (1 point per keg held) and for having your keg unit on the opponent's half of the table at the end of the game (2 points). 

Right when Jeremy and I began our game the tournament cracked their own kegs, so we were able to enjoy this game a little bit more than we normally would. I got the first turn and used it to kill all three units of warhounds as well as the five man marauder unit. I even managed to put a wound on one of the Chimeras. Jeremy responded by trying to trap some of my archer units and beginning to cast magic missiles (including Gateway) at the Waywatchers. One spell got through and a I lost seven Waywatchers from one unit. Turn 2, all three Glade Rider units came onto the board and began peppering the wounded Chimera killing it before it got a chance to use its breath weapon. One Glade Rider unit also picked up Jeremy's dropped keg. The remaining shooting worked to bring down more of the marauders from the large unit. Jeremy's magic phase was particularly deadly with a strength 11 Gateway that wiped out a full unit of scouts.

Over the next several turns, I would manage to shoot and kill everything in Jeremy's army except his characters (blasted high toughness and ward saves). Jeremy would get to use two breath weapons to reduce the strength of the scout units, but all his damage was really caused by his Tzeentch magic. Jeremy even told me that he was originally thinking Lore of Metal which would have netted Jeremy 0 victory points in our game. As it was, Jeremy was successful in blowing off several units through six turns of Tzeentch magic, but it was not enough to take the game. I won by more than 100 points and once again gained all 4 bonus objectives putting me at 40 points for the first two rounds and tied for first place with a dozen other players.

Jeremy would go on to continue to do fairly well at the tournament and ended up 44th with 66 battle points. A solid top-half showing, but I am sure lower than he was hoping for the tournament.