This past Sunday I organized a Who’s the Boss tournament at Drawbridge Games using the nice Grotscon ruleset. While an unusual number of last-minute cancellations from players kept the numbers down, we still had enough to field a sizeable group of casters. For those unfamiliar with the Who’s the Boss format, all the Warcasters and Warlocks get pooled in the middle and are rolled for at random each round. It makes it so the players have a different caster leading their force each time, and as they cannot be from the same faction it can lead to some strange and fun combinations. In addition, casters are fielded as if they are part of the faction you’re playing, so Warcasters could be using a Fury mechanic instead of Focus (and vice versa) depending on who gets them. It’s pretty chaotic, because they’re usually using spells that aren’t balanced for the faction. Mayhem can easily ensue.
We had a huge field of casters available even with the cancellations–40 different fully painted casters that could be randomized.
Quite the deadly group.
As we would have had an odd number of players if I didn’t join in, I played as well. Because Who’s the Boss games take a long time–there’s a lot of reading and thinking about the casters, which slows you down to be safe–we had 30 point forces with at least 7 points worth of Warjacks/Warbeasts. I fielded Trollbloods for mine: Two Dire Troll Blitzers, a Storm Troll, a Troll Bouncer, and five Troll Whelps. I figured that it could deal with whatever infantry showed up at 30 points, but could still get work done against beasts and jacks as needed.
My first Random Boss was Calaban the Gravewalker, a Minions warlock. Occultation to keep me safe, Bone Shaker to assault the foe, and Parasite to make the Trolls hit like trucks… plus a crazy feat versus an opponent fielding a lot of living infantry.
I got lucky, and that’s exactly what my opponent fielded. It was a Thornfall Alliance force with a heavy line of Brigands and Slaughterhousers, backed up by some beasts. His randomized caster for the round was Grissel Bloodsong, Fell Caller. As Grissel is one of my contributions to the caster pool, I knew her pretty well–it was time to see what she did for the Pigs.
The Roadhog grabs my Bouncer’s shield as the two tussle in the zone. I put a lot of pressure on his force, with the Blitzers’ Guns and Calaban’s spells (especially on feat turn) putting the hurt on them badly. But the sheer brute force of the Roadhog helped keep my Trolls in check. Finally my caster was killed, thought we were each down to just three or four models each at that point. Absolutely bloody but fun battle with a great sport of an opponent–who seemed to love the raw power of Grissel’s feat turn especially.
My second Random Boss was Kara Sloan, a Cygnar Warcaster. She’s a shooting specialist for a shooting faction, and given that I was fielding a pretty shooty list, I was excited about the combo. Her feat turn in particular could be devastating with my force as it meant a number of extra long-ranged attacks from her and no need to boost my to-hits with my Trolls (which is usually a must for ranged attacks in the faction).
My opponent fielded Cryx, led by Random Boss Vice Scrutator Vindictus. The force was two bonejacks, a big unit of Bane Thralls with UA and Bane Lord Tartarus, and Blackbane’s Ghost Raiders. Defender’s Ward on the Bane Thralls was a bad, bad thing, and the movement bonus and pathfinder from True Path was just icing on the cake for them.
A lone Troll Whelp stands up to the withering menace of a Bane Thrall. Too much work had to be done by Kara in this one: she was the only magic weapon, but it was only ranged, so a lot of her shots had to go into Blackbane’s incorporeal models. But with her ability to see Stealthed models, she was the only one that could really project any threat on the Banes. While the feat helped, it really didn’t stem the tide.
Vindictus himself rolled up to push the attack and clear the zone. Kara was not assassinated, as he was well back on a flag on my half and killing things as they got close. But the Banes cut my warbeasts to ribbons and eventually left him able to out score me with dominating the central zone. It was a fun game, and I’m not sure what all I could have done to be the victor in this one.
My third Random Boss was Drake MacBain, a Mercenary Warcaster. As my force was almost all battlegroup, his feat was near useless but Energizer was awesome. He was also the best painted of the casters that I got to play with during the event.
My opponent had a Khador force that was quick and deadly with Black Dragons and Doomreavers. His random Boss was Anson Durst, Rock of the Faith. The scenario was the older one with three flags, one of which disappeared at the very end of round one. I gambled by sending my force almost entirely to the left flank, while he went middle and right. Luckily, it was the rightmost flag that disappeared. I could win the scenario by dominating the outside flag (2 points) if I could keep him off it.
What proceeded to happen was a strange maneuvering game, with very few casualties at first. I got a quick turn of nabbing 2 points of the objective, so I was well on my way. Once his forces started to hit home I could see that I wasn’t going to with the actual battle. So I had to be creative–thank goodness I had the Dire Troll Blizers and their Repulsion animus that pushes opponents away. Through creative use, I was able to slow him down and score again. It finally ended in a situation where if I could just get a few key models pushed away, I’d win the scenario 6 points to 5 points (as he had been getting the middle one flag for a while). Drake did his job, pushing a unit away, Energizering, pushing a few others away, then moving and pushing out a third group. All that was left was the completely healthy Blitzer needing to animus near him, then suffer but a single free strike on his way to move and animus away the last two models. Victory was almost in my grasp. Till the Black Dragon Pikeman’s free strike rolled doubles, and my Dire Troll suffered the Critical Knockdown effect which ended his turn before he could shove out the last two foes and causing my opponent to win 5-4. It was a blast of a game, and my scenario play was a race against his killing power. Really fun time.
I did up the trophies for the event, as you’ve always got to give out trophies to reward players, as I wrote about in this Bell of Lost Souls article. The big center one, with Who’s the Boss’ Tony Danza, was for the overall winner and came with the prize of Haley 3–the boss who’s three bosses at once! The one on the left, with Boss Hogg, was for the best painted boss, and came with pSkarre. The one on the left, with Boss Nass, was a surprise award–it went to the player who had the worst luck with which random bosses they rolled throughout the event. It’s good to award a non-competition prize in every event.
A shot of the winners with their prizes. Matt won the overall Who’s the Boss victor, going undefeated for the event. Andy won best painted for his nifty, and bloody, Minions warlock Midas. And Ryan won the Boss Nass worst caster luck award largely on getting Durgen Madhammer in his first round, which proved to be a complete disaster. Durgen has a hard time being successful with a force full of carefully synergized dwarves… in Who’s the Boss he’s a disaster when you get him in a force that had no shooting besides a single spray.
Overall it seemed to be a fun event. I was bummed that we had so many people cancel and no-show right at the last minute, but focusing on the players who did show and the fun we had makes it a success in my mind. I’ll probably try to host another in the future sometime, as it’s a fun format for everyone–and I’ve got a few casters I want to paint up to offer up for the next incarnation!
Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia counts as 5 points for the painting challenge (Warcasters earn points on Base Size). He was a fun model, as I tried to work on the blue rune glow coming from his staff–making the ones directly under his hand light up like he was pulling magic from them. 
I also finished a second Dire Troll Blitzer (the one on the right is the new guy). I made his pose as different as I could from the other one to set them apart a little while still being the same. This is probably my favorite model in all of the faction (though the 
I also finished up five Troll Whelps. These little dudes are the Fury management system for Trollbloods, and while they’re a pretty bad Fury management system compared to the other Hordes factions, at least they’re something. I got two groups of them at the same time, so I did the similar models together: two shed from Earthborns, two shed from Blitzers (I think, because they’re running?), and one that seems to be an Impaler whelp (the quiver). 
The force was led by Severius, with Errants, Bastions, Choir, two heavies, a light with an arc node, and a paladin solo. Despite being a dangerous force, Terry’s classic Protectorate painting work is absolutely beautiful. 
My force at the start of turn two. The problem with Morghoul2 is that he needs to get a lot of work done himself to contribute at all, so he’s got to rush up with the rest and hope his high defense holds. 
My Warlock after diving into the Errants and clearing out most of them himself. There was a good landing spot where he could take out a number of them with Flashing Blade–then all that’s left is to move the beasts into position around him to minimize attacks back.
I suffered some pretty heavy losses to the enemy attacks. As is often the case with Skorne, I had a big turn of killing Bastions and putting the hurt on Warjacks and Errants… only to be followed by an equally bloody reprisal turn. The Razor Worm had eaten a Choir member, allowing him to do his Drag Below action to get right up into Severius. The Paladin missed his attacks, so Severius turned around to kill him in melee. While he finished the worm, that left Severius open to my forces getting to him and finishing him off in my subsequent turn. 
As a Skorne player, it was my fault in forgetting Counter Charge. I knew that Barathrum has it, I knew I needed to be careful about it, and yet… My plan to set up a top-of-two assassination shot on Skarre by running my Mortitheurge Willbreaker forward (for control range to allow the slamming Gladiator to buy attacks after the fact) was foiled by Barathrum simply Counter Charnging the Willbreaker and putting him into the dirt. Luckily (or not) he used Drag Below to go back to a point that I could still pull it off. But the Gladiator would end out of control range. For some reason I still made that play, which in hindsight both helped (made a huge distraction for his force by having a Gladiator standing over Skarre) and hurt (I lost my Gladiator). 
Meanwhile, Morghoul2 was the only source of magic weapon I had besides the Cyclops Shaman. So he spent his turn putting up Beat Back, charging Blackbane’s Ghost Raiders, and then sliding around using Flashing Blade to clear them out. 
As the battle continued, as always with Morghoul2, my side started to lose the attrition war. Too many weaponmaster Bane Thrall attacks took their toll on my medium and heavy warbeasts, and things were looking grim. I had placed Morghoul2 up near the Banes thinking he’d have to do some fancy footwork with more Beat Back to clear them all out. Then I realized that Skarre was standing at the edge of the zone and was likely within range–and was without focus. I just needed to hit with the fan to blind her, and while it was close (he is kinda feeble for a Lord Assassin) he finally managed to finish her off. 
I ended up choosing Hexeris2, knowing that my shooting would be blunted a bit by his magical protections but having more diversity of options than the Morghoul list I’ve been working on sorting out. My list had the Siege Animantarax, Aradus Sentinel, Titan Cannoneer, Cyclops Shaman, and Cyclops Raider all adding to the volume of fire–plus various support staff and sexy Hexy. The above was my initial deployment (still waiting to deploy the Aradus Sentinel with AD–he’s close to the final spot I set him in. 
Scott’s Protectorate force. Feora2 and a battlegroup with a Judicator, a Reckoner, and the Hand of Judgment. Supporting them were a Choir, two Vassals, a big group of Exemplar Errants with UA, Alten Ashley, and Saxon Orrik. Scott got the first turn, and rushed his forces up to claim a deeper line of battle. 
I made an initial mistake with my Aradus Sentinel and its positioning in the worst possible spot to see through the forest in between the two zones. 3″ is such a short distance, and he doesn’t have eyeless sight like the Razorworm (which I run very often with Hexeris2 as his bonded channeler). He recovered well with his Carapace special rule boosting his armor against the assaults of the Errants and Alten Ashley. Then he managed to line up a charge that let him eat both Ashley and Saxon Orrik on the same turn. 
I managed to take an early points lead when the Protectorate Warjacks didn’t move up into my zone. Hexeris2 braved the long range firepower of the Judicator and toed in, scoring me three points over bottom of two and top/bottom of three. At that point, I was starting to take heavy losses so my game plan became block and score as best I could. The Siege Animantarax, the Titan Gladiator, and the Cyclops Brute all laid down their lives drawing the colossal and heavy jacks toward my zone. Skorne armor is good, but it wasn’t standing up to the sheer beating that Scott’s Protectorate forces were meting out. 
Meanwhile my ranged warbeast package were nibbling away at the Errants holding the enemy zone. The Hand of Judgment moved to bring pressure onto my zone, so I just needed a round of good shooting and supported by a quick dash to the middle by Hexeris2 to provide control area for the shooty beasts to get the job done. The Cyclops Shaman eventually downed the objective with a Mortitheurge-assisted shot, and with my beasts controlling the zone I managed to squeak out 5 control points before what was sure to be the inevitable smashing of Hexeris2 by a combination of Judicator shots and Reckoner assault. It was a really fun game, one of those down-to-the-wire can I survive long enough to get the last points kinda games that make for good drama. Scott is a great opponent as well, which always helps with enjoyment of a match. 
The Shaman is a great support and shooting light warbeast for Skorne, and his 5 points brings me to 18/29 for February and 50 points total so far in 2016. 
My Bronzeback and Void Spirit flank the cluster of forest, and draw the line of battle close to the emerging point of the Wurm’s gibbering mouths. 
The might of Khador advances in formation toward the site of danger. So many Winterguard, supported by the Great Bears and two deadly Warjacks in the distance. 
Spacing, my old foe. I got too aggressive with my Warbeasts, and lost both the Bronzeback (to two Warjacks) and the Gladiator (to the Great Bears) in a single round (thanks to Sorscha2’s feat). Leveraging threat was hard in this game because of the unpredictability of decisions being made by the Wurm player (placing huge spots of rough terrain, clouds that blocked line of sight, and simply removing key support models by swallowing them whole.
With both my heavy warbeasts lost, and Mordikaar standing way too close to danger, I had to make a play to assassinate Sorscha2 before it was too late. The good news was, I had a void spirit that had been lurking amidst the magic weapon-less Winterguard. Within Mordikaars control area, it received boosted attack rolls, and with a high MAT and Annihilator to do an extra dice of damage to living models it was able to take a healthy chunk out of Sorscha2 when it charged her. She was on zero focus from powering her Warjacks to reach and take out the Bronzeback, so the hit certainly hurt. Then Mordikaar simply did what he did best: an essence blast spray attack using the Void Spirit ended the game with an assassination of Sorscha2. 
There were some shining moments for the force and their deadly old character cannon, but Morghoul and his rampaging Titan Gladiator proved to be too much for the piratical forces. 
I also finished up a Cyclops Raider. He’s mainly a support beast for his animus (which gives Snipe), but he can get some work done in shooting himself if needed. His best ability is that if he takes the time to aim, he ignores Stealth–which is huge for cutting out those frustrating solos in an enemy force that rely upon Stealth to protect them. With these two added to my painted total, I hit 13 total points painted in February, and 45 total points finished so far in 2016. It’s a long road to 366, but not that long!
The Great Bears made a mess of my Aradus Sentinel, as Beast 09 and a Kodiak watched. Colton’s awesome-looking Khador filled the center with very tough models, which meant I had to focus on the sides and be careful about my placement in the middle. 
I got out to an early lead thanks to the flanks. On the left, two light beasts finished off some solos while pMorghoul himself did a dance of death through the Widowmakers who had ran up to take a shooting position. On the right, my Void Spirit grabbed a quick point facing down the intimidating Man-O-War Shocktroopers. They weren’t quite within range of the flag, and their lack of magic weapons meant they simply had to bypass the Void Spirit and leave a trailing couple of members to contest the flag in the later turns. 
I finally managed to finish off the Great Bears, and drew Beast 09 to the right, which left a straight shot for my Titan Gladiator to slam the Kodiak right through the Butcher. With the Gladiator’s follow-up ability, he rolled right up to the Butcher and bought a couple of attacks to finish him off for assassination. It was a good game, and I was lucky to get the kill as things were starting to get pretty beat up on my side of the table–and the Man-O-Wars were about to mop up all the damaged light beasts on my right side. 
My second game was against Ryan’s excellently painted, classic-look Cryx. His force was heavy on infantry with Bane Thralls and Blackbane’s Ghost Raiders, along with a couple of arc node bonejacks and Barathrum. I started realizing that I had only a couple of magic weapon options, so Blackbane’s were going to be a definite concern. I decided to play Morghoul up and make a tight line of my stuff on their side, hoping that he would come to me an jam with the Incorporeal models. He did, and that let Morghoul have a turn of absolute destruction. With his super-high MAT, 
Then of course, it was Deneghra’s turn to shine. Her feat is utterly crippling for a turn. I had to try and weather the storm–the only model that wasn’t caught in the feat was the little Agonizer. He used Spiritual Affliction to deny Barathrum and a Bonejack focus for the turn, which bought me some breathing room as I traded blows and suffered heavy losses from the Bane Thralls. 
Welcome to the slap-fight. Deneghra got aggressive, moved up and used Crippling Grasp to further limit Morghoul, then laid into him with melee attacks. However, he didn’t quite get finished off and was sitting at a miserable 2 health boxes at the end of the Cryx turn. While I didn’t have a way to shake the Crippling Grasp (my kindgom for a Cyclops Shaman!), I was right in her face and had most of my Fury plus one for Maltreatment (having to shake Shadowbind was a pain), so I thought I’d return the favor. The Cyclops Raider set up the attack, slamming a Bane Thrall into Deneghra–knocking her down and killing the Bane. Yet even with the flurry of attacks Morghoul was coming up short. P+S 7 was simply not getting the job done. I got too close to empty Fury and she was still reasonably healthy–so I put up Admonition and took a swing at another close model and killed it to be able to Sprint away. I rolled my Razorworm up and he finished the job of the assassination. It was a fun game, and while my blending through Blackbane’s was a morale buster, the fight could have cut either way multiple times throughout the battle. 
This brings me to 37 points painted this far in 2016. I’m a 10th of the way to having painted a point per day! I did him in the colors I’m doing the rest of my Cryx in, as he’s likely to only ever hit the table alongside my Cryx force. 
First up was a pretty balanced Skarre list run by Ian. My Shrike actually did a pretty impressive job in this game. I got jammed by a group of Satyxis Raiders early, so to make sure I could contest I had to use Goreshade3’s feat on the top of turn two. The good news was, that meant the Shrike auto-hit on a long line of tramples and he soared a whopping 13 inches (thanks to Infernal Machine) and obliterated one half of the jammers in a literal fell swoop. The rest of the game he spent dodging attacks from the Bane Knights thanks to his high defense, until one finally tagged him and destroyed the little birdjack. 
Skarre’s alpha strike really hurt, especially the Soulhunters simply annihilating my Revenant Crew. However Goreshade3 was able to rush back and apply some scenario pressure, dominating the zone and getting some points for me while my opponent never quite cleared their zone. It meant that Skarre needed to go for the assassination, but it didn’t quite take. Goreshade was left in range of Skarre with a Helldiver behind her: the little jack surfaced, headbutted her to the ground, and Goreshade3 finished her with a charge. 
Round Two I faced Cryx again. This time I was facing Ryan, who dropped his Goreshade3 versus mine. Our lists were pretty different except for Mechanithrals and Bile Thralls, and Ryan got the first turn–which proved to be pretty decisive. He played his Bile Thralls up, charged and destroyed some with Goreshade3, then used Mockery of Life to get them placed even further up the field. A variation I should have done to him if I had gone first–but instead I had to play a bit defensively and creep around the sides. 
My Goreshade3 played up to the objective between two forests, recognizing that if I was going to do anything I’d need to increase the scenario pressure a bit. 
The problem was that I had to keep flooding the middle to keep him from scoring, and the Kraken and Bane Riders kept him well ahead of the curve. I kept the pressure up as much as I could, but once he got my objective dead and dominated the center for a round, it was all over but the taxes for most part. I crowded the zone once more, but his Kraken did its thing and I was too little too late. Still a fun game, as Ryan is always a great opponent who I learn a lot from when I play (he went on to win first place in the event). 
My third round match was against Justin’s gorgeously painted Khador force. Just look at that Behemoth. He fielded Vlad, which meant that my forces would have to sell themselves dearly–whenever he attacked me he was sure to hit and damage because of the added dice. I started my pressure early with the Mechanithralls and Revenant Crew, and while they did indeed die in droves they at least took some stuff with them–in particular heavily damaging the Behemoth. 
I ended up winning thanks to the death clock–Justin timed out for the round. It was a lucky thing too, as I was definitely losing the attrition game. My jacks were intact, and I was deciding whether I could try to scenario or simply had to nudge an arc node up and hope for a Hail Mary assassination through spells. Thank goodness for the Revenant crew in this game–I think a lot of time was spent dealing with them. Though I never got any back from their unit’s ability (only through Captain Rengrave adding models), the question they ask of “can you kill enough and then get the job done on the unit leader?” is a time sink for the opponent. Overall a great game, as Justin was a really fun player to face and his army was wonderfully painted.
The Mortitheurge Willbreaker brings my points painted up to 34 so far in 2016. I’ve got a lot more Skorne and Cryx on the table, so the target of 366 seems not too far from reach! Skorne really helps, as each caster needs such different pieces to be effective… ah, the joys of Skornergy. 
This battle I faced Andy’s Blindwater Congregation, led by Rask. It was two big Gatormen Posses, an Ironback Spitter, a Bullsnapper, some Bog Trog Ambushers, and support staff. I was definitely not ready for Rask, both in caster choice and in tactics. I should have played back more and waited out his feat, then done some close range chain-elimination: kill a unit in melee to free the next unit to shoot deeper. Instead, the Posses hit like tons of bricks. 
In the end I made a game of it, as Hexeris2 went on a personal rampage. He wrecked nearly a whole Posse himself with combination of attacks and spells, and took most of the Ambushers out on another round. He got very lucky, but not lucky enough to pull out anything close to a win. I lost pretty clearly (assassinated at the end by the remaining Trogs), but felt good that I recovered from a derpy start like I did. All told a fun game, as Andy is a great opponent with a fun force. Now at least I’m ready for Rask again!
Completed my Shrike bonejack. Modified slightly to be flying, rather than taking off. Takes me to 34 points painted for the year!
My army arrayed for battle. Even at 35 points, Cryx makes for a fearsome large battle line.
Colton’s Khador line of battle, led by Karchev the Terrible at the front. Less widespread, certainly, but equally imposing as the Cryx line. I had my work cut out for me. 
The battle was joined, and Karchev led the way all across the board to the flag on my side. My poor Defiler was no match for the armored destruction. 
Goreshade3 followed suit, and rode across to the opposite flag himself. To win the game, I merely needed to defeat one destroyer. It took me a full turn of Goreshade3 and the Mechanithralls, then surviving the return attacks from the crippled warjack, and finishing it off the next round. Man, those crabjacks are tough! I managed to pull off the win, but only just. 
Other games from the evening. Andy’s Thornfall Alliance hog squad against Terry’s Protectorate of Menoth–the smell of bacon grilled on the flames of the righteous!
Brandon’s Trenchers dig into the zone, firing madly at Dan’s advancing Khador line. 
Another game for Brandon’s Trenchers, this time facing fellow Cygnarian compatriots in Tony’s force. 
Careful application of force can sometimes trump raw numbers. Ryan’s Cryx had been the most successful faction at racking up caster kills through the league, but this time the kill went to Rico’s Legion of Everblight. A bow shot and Parasite from Lylyth onto Asphyxious made him quick work when the Carnivean trampled in. 
The conclusion of the Protectorate/Thornfall match between Andy and Terry. Beautiful models on both sides lured me to get an extra shot of the action. 
Most of the Journeyman crew. From left to right: Andy, Tony, Ryan, Rico, Dan, Brandon, Colton, and Terry (I took the photo). We had a grand total of 13 players who participated in more than one evening of the event, with 11 who participated in all but 1-2 nights. 
Just a bit of shooting in the opposing list… There used to be a left flank of Mechanithralls…
Goreshade3 stares down the massive form of the Blightbringer that rose beyond the forest.
Red Ones Go Faster 