Agent's Clash - June 25 - Nemesis Tournament
For the tournament, I was running Cyreni's Razors with a Strike build, pairing Blazing Assault and Countdown to Cataclysm. The aim was to use the Razors' accuracy to focus down one enemy fighter at a time, while relying on their speed and range 2 weapons to stay out of harm’s way. In each game, I planned to start by inspiring Cephanyr in the first round to benefit from extra Movement, a 4-sword attack, and a 2-Dodge defence.
Game 1
My first game of the day saw me draw against Seamus McMahon, who was playing Skritch's Swarm paired with Realmstone Raiders and Blazing Assault.
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| My Skritch's Swarm |
The game was closely fought the whole way through, with neither Seamus nor I really able to score our objective cards. This became particularly apparent from my point of view once he raised the Festering Skaven, thereby preventing me from scoring Wreckers and Hounds of War. At the start of the game, both of us landed accurate attacks, each opening with a triple Crit. But as the game progressed into the later rounds, neither of us could make a reliable hit.
Throughout the game, nothing particularly notable happened. Seamus made his attacks and raided, drawing Emberstone cards, which he then used—often to inspire his own fighters. However, on reflection, he might have been better served placing those cards back on his deck to cycle through and score objectives more effectively. The game remained tight all the way through, often only separated by a two-glory difference. I found that my deck was difficult to score, due to the Cataclysm counter ticking upwards too quickly, and the raised fighters ensured there simply weren’t enough slain enemy models to satisfy many of my conditions. By the end of the game, I had four cards remaining—three of them were surges.
This game was far from an easy win, but Seamus was a very good sportsman throughout. The final score: 12 to 7, a win.
Game 2
My second game was against Niall O'Malley who playing Grandfather's Gardeners pairied with Blazing Assault and Emberstone Sentinels.
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| My Gardeners |
I have never played against the Gardeners before and quickly in the first round I realised it was worth avoiding making an attack to prevent the Gardeners tracker from moving on. This meant that Naill's next attack would only be at damage 1 instead of 2. On top of this, Naill had also played his Healing Potion too early and therefore wasted the heal from the tracker. These two plays, one from each of us, meant that he was on the back foot. By the end of the first Round I had lost Alathyrr but had slain Phlegemus and I was leading 5 glory to 4.
In the second round, I began by charging and killing Squort, the rot fly. My intention here was to reduce the number of enemy fighters on the board, so that I could start to 'gang up' on fighters. Naill and I then traded blows with both Cyreni and Cephanyr being injured, and I managed to slay Strewg.
In the third round, Slunge and Dripterus continued to pile the damage onto my fighters until both Cyreni and Cephanyr were vulnerable. Cephanyr luckily survived an attack from Dripterus and was able to use it's Phantasmal Ink to escape from further attacks. Renglaith remained free harm due to his 3 Block Save due to Utter Conviction. I managed to kill Slunge but I could not apply enough damage to finish Dripterus.
The game was close all the way through again, but it finished 17 v 11, and a win for me.
Game 3
Game 3 saw me sat at table 2. I was against Connor Lamb who was playing Zondara's Gravebreakers, paired with Pillage and Plunder alongside Countdown to Cataclysm. Annoyingly, I thought Connor had said he was playing Blazing Assault, not Pillage and Plunder. This meant that during the first round, I didn’t attempt to counter his Delving—I thought he was doing it to activate his warscroll!
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| My Gravebreakers |
In the first turn, Connor used his minions to invade my territory and jump onto Treasure tokens, which he then Delved. He also took opportunistic charges against my fighters, mainly focusing on Renglaith. I, in return, was determined to gain some early glory by killing a few zombies, but also to close in on Zondara so that I could go in for the kill in the second round.
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| Game 2 Set up |
The round began with Connor taking the initiative and charging Renglaith with Toyle, who moved onto Treasure token (1), caused one damage, and drove him back before Delving the token. I responded by charging with Renglaith and killing Toyle. Cracktomb then moved onto the central Treasure token (3), blocking my Hammertide to Ferlain, before Delving the token and raising Toyle. Connor used Sidestep to push Toyle adjacent to Renglaith. Ignoring Toyle, I charged in with Alathyrr and killed Cracktomb, thereby clearing a Hammertide path to Ferlain. Connor’s third turn saw him charge Renglaith with Pikk (after a push from Violent Blast, I think), while Toyle provided flanking support. Pick successfully caused two points of damage, leaving Renglaith vulnerable, before yet again Treasure token (1) was Delved. This raised Cracktomb back to the battlefield, surrounding Renglaith. For my third turn, I used Hammertide to injure Ferlain.
For Connor’s last turn of the first round, he first played Commanding Stride to push Zondara forward. Zondara then charged onto the Treasure token in Neutral territory and attacked Cephanyr, which missed. Zondara then Delved Treasure token (4) and retreated using the warscroll ability, Undying Love and Ferlain healed using the same ability. For my final turn, Cyreni charged using Wings of War and the upgrade Sharpened Points to do a single point of damage at range 2. At the end of the first round, Connor scored Broken Prospects and Iron Grasp for a total of 4 glory. I struggled to score anything, due to the raised zombies being back on the battlefield.
At the start of the second round, I lost the initiative. Connor chose to attack my vulnerable Renglaith with Pikk, killing him. I then charged with an inspired Alathyrr, using Determined Effort (I was the underdog) and Twist the Knife for a 5-dice Hammer attack. Hitting with 2 Crits and 2 Hammers, I caused 3 damage to Zondara, killing her. With the zombies all out of position, Connor committed Ferlain to the combat. Diving in, he damaged Alathyrr, who had retreated back to friendly territory with Illusory Fighter, leaving him vulnerable. I then charged Ferlain with Cyreni and Cephanyr to finish him off. By the end of Round two, I had killed both Zondara and Ferlain, whilst only losing Renglaith. However, I was still struggling to score my deck. So far, I had only seen two of my surges and had only scored one of them. By the end of the second round, I was only on 9 glory and Connor was ahead on 13.
Heading into round three, I took the initiative. I charged into Pikk with Cephanyr and killed him. I then made a big mistake. At the end of the Power phase, I revealed Too Close for Comfort before quickly realising I could not score it. Connor, seeing he was ahead with only two zombies remaining, bid a hasty retreat. I could no longer score my surge. I tried jumping onto Treasure tokens to prevent Strip the Realm, but it was too late. I finished the game by scoring Spread Havoc and Loaded for Bear. My deck still contained four objectives, three of which were Surges: Get Stuck In, Overwhelming Force and Critical Effort. The game ended with a loss, 14 to 18. Well done, Connor.
By the end of this game, I was really struggling: the combination of heat and my bad back were really taking their toll.
Game 4
In my fourth game, I was physically struggling and finding it hard to focus. I was up against Dave King and his Jaws of Itzl, paired with Blazing Assault and Countdown to Cataclysm. Even if I’d been feeling well and not overheating from the British summer temperatures, I would have found playing against the Jaws tricky.
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| My Jaws of Itzl |
The game started reasonably well, apart from the first activation, where Kro-Jaq charged in and killed Alathyrr with a boost from Twist the Knife. After that, Cyreni, Cephanyr, and Renglaith all ganged up to kill Kro-Jaq, with little resistance from the other Saurus warriors.
Round 2 didn’t go so well. All my four-sword attacks resulted in single hits, which were promptly defended by shield rolls from the Jaws. This not only blocked my attacks but also inspired Dave’s fighters while damaging mine. On top of that, Sundered Realm wounded two of my three remaining fighters. By the time Ro-Tak and So-Kar attacked, both Cyreni and Renglaith were in range of being one-shot by the Saurus warriors. By the end of the round, all I had left was a vulnerable Cephanyr facing Ro-Tak, So-Kar, and the Venomite.
The third round saw Cephanyr go on Guard, then make a hasty retreat away from Dave’s warband. At no point in this game was I really in control, and once again, my deck struggled to deliver its surges. Get Stuck In and Too Close for Comfort were the bottom cards in my objective deck, and I never managed to draw them. The game ended 14 to 21, another loss.
Game 5
I was playing against Rhys Findlay-Robinson and his Headsman's Curse, paired with Blazing Assault and Countdown to Cataclysm.
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| My Headsman's Curse |
The game started off as a very cagey affair. I had all my fighters clustered in one corner of my territory, and Rhys had most of his in the opposite corner of the battlefield. During the first turn, the Scriptor charged and attacked a condemned Cephanyr, inspiring him. I spent my next three turns ganging up on the Scriptor, eventually bringing him down with a combination of attacks from Cephanyr, Alathyrr, and finally Renglaith. Cyreni just occupied Treasure token 3. All the while, Rhys repositioned his other fighters onto Treasure tokens to score Set Explosives. For his final turn, the Bearer of the Block charged Cephanyr, inflicting two more damage and leaving him vulnerable. I didn’t score any glory in the end phase, leaving me trailing 1 to 4.
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| Board state in the End phase of Round 1 |
In the third round, I needed to get all my fighters in close proximity to Rhys’s. I started with a charge from Renglaith into the Sharpener, but missed. The Wielder then charged into Cyreni, but I played the Surge Counter-charge with Alathyrr to provide flanking support, unfortunately, it was no use. Cyreni was struck down with a Twist the Knife boost, and the Bearer was raised back to the battlefield. Cephanyr was too far away for me to score Too Close for Comfort (this Surge had been unscorable all day). The Bearer then took out Alathyrr. Cephanyr charged the Wielder and missed with his 4-dice attack, so I couldn’t score Overwhelming Force, shutting down any hope of cycling through more of my Objective deck.
Throughout the whole day, I didn’t manage to score the Surge Get Stuck In. I couldn’t score Wrecker due to the Bearer being raised again and missing attacks on both the Wielder and the Sharpener. Rhys finished the game scoring Loaded for Bear and Keep Chopin'. I scored the same two Objectives, and the game ended 11 to 17—another loss.
Final result and thoughts
I finished the day in 16th position—well below what I had hoped for coming into the event. So, what went wrong?
Primarily, the heat and my bad back took their toll. I struggled to focus and wasn’t playing cards as effectively as I usually would.
Another major issue was my deck. I haven’t been playing much in recent weeks, and I hadn’t realised just how much the compulsory movement on the Cataclysm tracker would interfere with scoring Wreckers. On top of that, three of the warbands I faced featured the raise mechanic. These raised fighters really disrupted my scoring of cards like Fields of Blood, Hounds of War, and Wreckers, effectively bricking my hand and blocking key scoring opportunities.
Finally—and I can’t really blame this, but it’s worth noting—my dice and card draw order didn’t help. My surges often sat at the bottom of the deck, especially Get Stuck In, which never seemed to show up. Critical Effort only ever appeared after I’d already rolled a crit, and Too Close for Comfort seemed impossible to score all day.
Still, it was great to catch up with everyone. Imogen won the tournament with the Thricefold Discord but declined the Golden Ticket. That instead went to Harry (aka Slippy). Well done to both players!.
I want to thank everyone, especially the Agents of Sigmar, for organizing such a fantastic event.
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