Utah Cup Tournament Report

Over the weekend I got to head to a conquest tournament. The Green Banner Event Co had put together a large multi game event. The big focal point was 40k but we had a small 5 person conquest event and had a lot of fun playing amazing games and spreading the good word of TLAOK. The venue was fantastic and the event was very well run. We got to chat with a lot of people walking around after seeing some of the Yokais, Rakshasas, Dinosaurs, and other great models PBG makes. I had finished painting my Yoroni Army a solid 11 hours before the event started (Not even close), I had 7 practice games under my belt and I was feeling very good about things!

Disclaimer: While of course I wish it had been a bigger event (I always want a huge 5+ round event but that’s just me), the beginning of the school year is a VERY busy time and we had a lot of the core group from five plus metas across the mountain west unable to attend due to some unfortunate but unavoidable life situations.

I played into Sorcerer Kings Court of Fire led by a Raj, a BRUTAL Yoroni mirror match that was truly one of the most technical and fun games of conquest I’ve played in a long time, and a personal favorite of mine playing a game against a younger and newer Old Dominion player and helping them learn the game. I will try to keep this a bit more focused and brief. As reporting 3 games could go long.

Round 1 Bulwark

I played into Sorcerer Kings against my local. He’s a great player and always a fun game to play. His list was double Raj, Sardar. Sardar rode in some initiates, one raj had bound to the elements, prim khanjar, and some sword dancers. The other raj ran in a big ole block of rajakur. Then there were two 3 stand units of flame casters, another 3 stand unit of sword dancers, some dhanur disciples and a ravanar.

In the early game I really wanted to leverage the power of Kami to kill objectives in one round and use my speed to bully him off of objectives. I knew that his ranged game was powerful and that he was really able to easily kill me with flamecasters. I put the trials kami block into the middle objective, my monsters on the right flank, and the rest on the left.

My opponent sadly is introduced to Kami with Trials of Hakari-Ishi this game and I again got to say it’s way too powerful. He was an excellent sport about it though and we laughed and joked how court of fire doesn’t get the right to complain about balance.

I am able to bully him on the left side due to the presence of the objective. If he goes into kill the objective I have so much available to counter punch. His flamecasters do begin to chew through my units but I get some seriously terrifying spikes on my Tengu Ayakashi. We both had some SERIOUS dice spikes this game. I believe he rolled six 1’s during one of his flamecaster volleys. And he was very good about managing his stack to make sure everything that needed to be inflamed for the draw event was inflamed. We chatted about how some of my dice spikes came at more important times though which allowed me to edge out attrition advantages.

In the later rounds 4-6 some key things happen for the yoroni, my geisha lives on one wound and instead of being able to reform and see the kami block coming at them, holding me off the zone, my kami block gets to charge into the rear of the rajakur and just OBLITERATE them. The left side turns into a couple of birbs versus a couple of elementals but I am able to sneak some tengu bushi into melee and things devolve further and we call it there! First win down!

Round 2 Breakout

The yoroni mirror match has come. I think my opponent is playing a solid all comers list, while mine is a bit more skewed. He had 3×3 domaru damashi, 2×2 tengu ayakashi 1×2 tengu bushi, Spellcasting Spider, Kitsune with 3 kami 1 kappa and oyabun with 2 kami 1 oni. Kitsune has trials and the Oyabun has Ofuda. Side note I REALLY liked the ofuda tech piece. It was really cool. He used it to swap into Sui and get juggernaut and a couple other very clever uses.

I do apologize, I only remember to snap 3 pictures of this game, but as you can see, it was a SCRUM. Just an absolute brawl on the zones with some very techical and intense positioning to get any sort of advantage points wise. My opponent goes up on points quite early and I am a bit worried.

I have thankfully played into the terrifying healing power of the Mahotsu before so I just abandon the right side. Screw that spider and I ain’t messing with it. It’s a gamble but I know my list has killing power, even into a trials of hakari-ishi unit and I am making the attrition play. I send one token domaru damashi into the right side. And then the rest of my force is deployed central and left. Trying to turn this into a diagonal battle where I control two zones. For the early game turns my opponent is controlling the zones centrally and to the left by a stand or two. But as attrition starts to go my way in the mid game (Rounds 3-6) I have started to score more per round than him and he is even forced to bring the unitsf rom the right into the center.

I even manage to take down the Trials unit thanks to a Geisha in the flank and I use my reinforcing birbs to touch zones, steal them with late activations and eventually crawl my way ahead on points. Some key excellent plays from my opponent was sending his geisha into my Yokai where his insane cleave is worthless and some very excellent patient play avoiding some of my traps I had set up. When the game ends, to paint the picture. I have a Geisha on the left zone. And my Trials oyabun unit with 2 tengu bushi on the middle zone. Everything else is dead. and I am able to win by only a couple points.

Round 3 Echelon

Tournaments are a strange beast, especially if pair downs are weird, player count is low, and having a bye is a weirder thing still. Which leads me to round 3 into a 1-1 opponent who’s a newer player playing Old Dominion. We have a great time playing a bit of a learning game and it’s a nice game to end the day on especially after the intensity of round 2.

This game is a bit of a one sided one but we have a ton of fun talking out moves, learning, and making sure as many birds as possible die, a personal quest from my opponent. One of the only people who was able to kill my Geisha which is no mean feat! Yoroni are, categorically, stronger than Old Dominion and my opponent called yoroni the “Of course they can” faction, because “Of course that unit can do that”. My list was just too fast for my opponent. Ayakashi do terrible things to almost every OD unit, and I was able to table my opponent after a handful of rounds taking home first place and FINALLY finding the promo xhiliarch model I have been looking for for literal years.

Recap

I have had so much fun painting and playing this army, the models were all a joy to paint, especially cause my buddy dex built them for me :D. Gameplay wise, Yoroni are very powerful, I believe the only major red flag is the Trials of Hakari-Ishi, most everything else probably could be solved with some points increases. The tournament was really well run, the venue was SO nice and we can’t wait to keep growing the Utah cup!

We in the Mountain West are talking frequently and often how to improve the conquest community and keep the momentum rolling for this game that we love. If you are anywhere in the world, but especially in the western united states make sure to reach out to us. Let’s connect, make sure our tournaments are supported, and play some games!

As always thank you so much for reading. I write these just to look back on games and try to improve, and cause it’s really fun for me. Come talk shop, I am Arrest7 on the discord, arrest_paints on instagram and IAmArrest7 on Reddit!