TTS Tournament Written Report Round One: Spires (Pheromancer Underspires) Vs. Weaver Courts (Seanchas Sidhe Winter)

We have another great online GT starting in the Conquest Eternal discord. Round one I was paired against Lighten, a great guy who is actually revamping the TTS mod with Dex (Shout out to them. The mods been great, but their improvements are very well done). He brought the dadgum, tree lovin’, cousins to my Spires and I was especially excited because it was my first game into Weavers after their rework.

We got down to business (and defeated the Huns) and got ready to play a game on Declined Flank

This is a great list I’ve been workshopping a ton with Brent (He’s a local Vanguard, you see him on these reports ton) and I LOVE what it has going on.

I think the Desolation Beast is slept on. I think Desolation Drones and Desolation Beast are slept on. I love the High Clone Executor (HCE) with Marksman Clones. It has great scoring and just some general “Goodstuff” the Spires are able to bring to the table. I imagine a more Meta version of this list doesn’t include the HCE warband, instead going for another Biomancer.

Also. Bring Force Grown Drones (FGD) in blocks of 9. It’s a heckuva drug.

Huge shout out to the name of the list Easier Transport cause that’s friggen hilarious. Poor Weaver’s Players.

Pregame I like my gameplay into this list and with this scenario. I have more scoring regiments, and while I don’t have the late game pressure he has, I can hopefully take over the game! Looking at our table, I see a lot of value in

Early Game

Round One – I get some Vanguard Clones, and the line up across the way to hurl insults at a few units of Kern Skirmishers.

Round Two – I only get two of my medium regiments, and so I opt for my Abominations that will start getting me some points. I have a plan that involves overloading the right side of the board and making the Weavers get caught on the left side trying to handle the tarpit that is my FGD.

Round Three – On the left side the plan is well and full in swing. I did deviate a bit and send my MSU of Brute Drones to get really mad at the Ciannir Riders, but other than that, it’s full send on “Have fun killing the Drones here’s a Desolation Beast shooting you”

Right side get’s a bit more interesting, My opponent gives my Abominations a LOT of respect here and I take it. Neither one moves. I just am happy to score a bunch of points. At this point I am ahead on points and I can patiently make him come to me. The Vanguard Clones do get to kill some Will-O-Wisps who sadly don’t even get to have a picture.

I also see a really really big opportunity to jail up his Gemred Knights (They’re in the field behind the Kern on the right side) and I want to take it.

Lighten drops some melee Moths (Sciathan? Riders?) on the middle zone and I drop the Desolation Drones and Marksman Clones on the right (I know the plan was originally to have the two Desolation Buddies together, but I adapted)

Mid Game

Round 4 and 5 – Sorry got caught up in the heat of the moment and missed a screen grab. Left Side has become completely my domain. The FGD are STILL alive. They have healed DOZENS of wounds, and I felt my two Serotonin molecules smash together and move around for the first time in a long time because of that. (I love tarpits so much)

The MSU brutes are somehow still flailing at this dang moths. There were some pretty epic saves and I love that. Just the hero Moths giving their all. Scaile Dancers come to try and salvage things, but I worry about that placement. Scaile Dancers *Checks Notes* Are literally the bottom of the Desolation Beast food chain. They just…Cannot hang with something like that.

You may be wondering, hey Ben, why send the Pheromancer to the left side instead of the right? Great question, my reasoning was, lets completely win that side. I have enough stalling out the right side that I will maintain a scenario lead and be able to close out the game.

Speaking of the right side, my Vanguard Clones and the middle Abomination are able to keep the Gemred Knights trapped for TWO rounds. Finally getting cleared off by the Gallowglass flying in. The Gemred Knights are forced to March Charge and the right side Abomination lives because of it (And the water, I did place him by some water)

Late Game

Round 6

It’s round Six, I have a solid scenario lead and even though my right side has collapsed my left side is impenetrable and my opponent will lose the Scaile Dancers and only have one scoring regiment to my two or three left. My opponent decides we can talk it out from there as catching my score is pretty impossible.

We talk out the next rounds, of course my right side dies horribly, but my left side is able to score so much. Where I already had a scenario lead it was sadly over for the Weavers.

Post Game

This game was a blast. New Weavers are so cool. Also holy crap Gallowglass Warriors are TERRIFYING. I loved my list, and especially the ability I had to heal so much with the Underspires ruleset. I was able to strain quite often, I was healing a lot of the chip damage, and of course the stars of the show, the Force Grown Drones healing 30+ wounds over the course of the game.

What I Did Well – I think my best plays this game were with my Abominations, not rushing them forward, getting points, jailing Gemred Knights

What I Did Poorly – I wish my Marksman Clones had been more lined up with Zones. They could’ve done damage and scored points if I was a bit more deliberate with the positioning.

What My Opponent Did Well – I really liked how Lighten played, he did some great things especially with his Gallowglass Warriors. Using their Fly ability to some INTENSE value. He specifically asked for some recommendations so I am putting them here. Getting the Gemred Knights stuck might’ve been the key to my victory, having the Kern so far back might not have been the play, the Gemreds needed more room to exist. A lot of activations were wasted on the FGD, It’s almost worth ignoring them depending on how the game is going. Throwing the Crann at them took the Crann off the zone and that was painful. All in all it was a great game with a great opponent!

Thanks again for reading! I will see you in the next one.