This past weekend I played in a 2000pt scenario driven event in Calgary, AB Canada. This is the gaming highlight of the year for me and 2017 was the best one yet. Every table has a unique scenario and theme with custom built terrain to go with it. All 32 participants outdid themselves this year with their army presentation, the painting standard was high and there as an outrageous turn out of display boards (don’t know the exact number but it was well over 80%). The gaming standard for this event is also quite high as all the top notch players made it out this year. As mentioned every table has a scenario with unique objectives and win conditions. These range from holding points, assassinating the general, get your stuff off the board or a straight up slug fest. In addition, every game gave you a chance of earning up to 5 bonus points for completing more general secondary objectives. We also used time of war rules for each table, which create random in game effects that we have to adapt too as well as giving access to table specific spells. To help ensure that players do not struggle too much in any given scenario we are allowed a 500pt side board to change up our armies each round. I’ll be doing a prologue, 5 battle reports and an epilogue to cover this event. For each battle report I’ll attach a copy of the scenario that you can peruse so I don’t have to re write it. It’s been a few days and from the title of the event you can infer that some libations were imbibed so forgive any continuity errors that arise. So without further ado ill introduce my list and give you some of my pre event thoughts on how it works Engine of the Gods 240 Leader,General, Master of Defence, Obstinate Blade Skink Starseer 160 Saurus Astrolith Bearer 160 Pheonix Stone 10 Skinks 80 Battleline Boltspitter and Star buckler 10 Skinks 80 Battleline Boltspitter and Star buckler 10 Skinks 80 Battleline Boltspitter and Star buckler 2 Salamanders 120 Skink Handlers 40 Bastiladon 300 Solar Engine Bastiladon 300 Solar Engine Bastiladon 300 Solar Engine Battalions Thunderquake Starhost 120 Total 1980 Side Board Slann Starseer 260 Leader, General, Master of Defence, Pheonix Stone 10 Saurus Guard 200 Total 460 So the main list focuses around a Thunderquake Starhost. I checked it out before hand and it was ruled that you choose in the combat phase whether you want to be swift or savage and the bonus applies till the next combat phase where you get to choose again. This means that my EotG and 2 Bastiladons were always rerolling to wound and save rolls. Combine this with the astrolith bearer for rerolls to hit and the army hits hard from range and is incredibly tanky. The starseer is there for rerolls aswell as throwing a mystic shield on either the EotG or the non battalion basti. The Salamnders were mostly for the battalion but turned out to be a great choice. Skinks are for screening. How I saw the army playing was that the bastis line up in a row with the non battalion one sitting in the middle. What this did was minimize the amount of odels that could attack him by blocking them from piling in around his sides. The other bastis rerolled saves so im less worried about them but could always use a piece of terrain to shield more flans. The EotG would hang back as I didn’t want him in danger and losing my battalion buffs. The salamanders stayed behind the line of bastis until an enemy unit engaged the front line then provided firing support. The skinks screened all the bastis. The Astrolith bearer and Starseer hung back out of danger to keep alive and provide buffs. Bastis laser beam everything in range. Overall it lacks speed, very long range, high rend and reliable mortal wound output. However, it is survivable as all hell and puts out a ton of damage at medium range. I was anticipating a field of skyfires stormfiends, vanguard raptors etc. Stuff with long range and mortal wound output, so I wanted something that could take the mortal wounds and keep going. Turns out I anticipated the field incorrectly but it worked out okay. The side board was the real gem in this list I think. Mostly I would drop the EotG, the battalion and the salamanders and grab the Slann and a 280pt summoning pool. This gave me the versatility to summon almost anything in the book to fit whatever battlefield role I needed. I knew that some scenarios would benefit having wizards or priests or would need me to put battleline units on the other side of the table. I had a balewind vortex which doubles my casting range, boosts casting attempts and protects my slann. With the astrolith bearer Im summoning units 38” away! The saurus guard were there just incase I needed a larger unit that can tank that I didn’t need to summon but it never came up. The field was a fairly even spread of all grand alliances, but what really struck me was that most of the lists were heavily combat focused. I was definitely the shooting list at the event. That’s just fine with me as it means that I can often control the tempo of the game. Another thing I noticed was that many players didn’t use a side board, meaning when we arrived at the table I had much greater flexibility to tailor my list to the scenario and my opponent. That’s enough rambling for now. Game 1 is against M and his Ironjawz!!