Hey, Jamie Perkins here with yet more Warmachine battle reports, now in a brand new home! Yes, we’ve graduated from Google Docs to an actual blog. It’s a big moment.
Almost as big as the event at which the battles in question took place — which was, of course, the Warmachine World Team Championship that took place in Sweden, October 2025.
While I was always planning to write reports regardless of the results, I actually had the privilege of being part of this year’s winning team, taking home the WTC trophy alongside my fantastic teammates on Team England Paddington.
In this series, I’ll be covering all five of my games from the event, including some round insights and details from my teammates’ games. If you’d like to reference results, army lists, or stats from the event while reading these reports, you can find them here on Longshanks.
And if you’d prefer less in-depth play-by-play and more of a conversational overview, check out the Warmanchester Radio podcast.
Quick disclaimers
A couple of disclaimers before we get started. I work for Steamforged Games on development of Warmachine. When playing in events, I very much take my “SFG hat” off and just try to participate like a regular member of the public.
To that end, this report is entirely my own views and experiences. It is not reflective of the views of Steamforged Games, or my professional perspective on Warmachine.
Now, I did get somewhat swept up in the event, so unfortunately I don’t have photos of my first few games. However, there are full gameplay videos of my final two games courtesy of the Moment of Clarity streaming team, which will soon be released. When we get to those games I’ll include links to the gameplay videos.
And if you’d like to check out snippets of mine and the other Team England Paddington Day 2 games, you can find those in the Day 2 livestream that’s already on YouTube.
Now the disclaimers are out of the way: what an event! Peter “Flogger” Alsén and team ran an outstanding WTC.
The venue was incredible, the food was restaurant standard, the rooms were spacious, the gaming halls were ideal. Everything ran like clockwork. The place even had its own “gaming” bar complete with foosball and pool tables, shuffleboard, and dart boards. The place was bouncing on the Saturday and Sunday nights.
Seth Cohen led an expert team of judges that, once they nailed down placement in the venue, never missed a beat. The judge team racked up thousands of steps a day covering the three gaming halls. As far as I experienced, they made excellent decisions when they needed to step in. Top marks.
Moment of Clarity ran a first class streaming setup (linked above) with sportscaster-level commentary from Dan Jones and MoC’s Piotr Palacz. Two very experienced gamers that offered entertaining and insightful views, complete with player interviews and interactions with the viewers in the live chat. I believe the stream topped out at over 200 people watching live as the finals played out on the Sunday!
My army lists: Khymaera Shadowflame Shard
I’ve been playing Shadowflame Shard since WTC 2024 and even though I love my Winter Korps dearly, the Khymaera playstyle just seems to click with me much more naturally. I grew to love the glass cannon playstyle of Legion of Everblight years back and that seems to have stuck with me.
I felt very much at home playing Kyrrax and Shyryss and have been sharpening my lists for both through most of the year in local events, War Table leagues, and the Welsh Masters. I actually started off the year dropping Kyrrax into most opponents. Slowly that shifted more and more towards Shyryss becoming my main drop with Kyrrax only being used for specific match ups, particularly once the Trikhymaerax released and Huxley became a problem that needed solving.
(On my list names: I was not prepared for the list name meta game that emerged this year, and so my list names are sadly somewhat lacking in the creativity department. For a review of the best list names, check out this episode from The Business.)
| Kyrrax’s Arc | Triryss | |
| Warlock | Kyrrax, the Unrelenting Night | Shyryss, the Flawless Dark |
| Battlegroup | 12 Vypex 1 HEAD – Asp 3 TAIL – Hunter’s Mark 8 ARMS – Impalers 19 Wyvern 1 19 Wyvern 2 | 31 Trikhymaerax 9 ARCANE HEADS – Many-Eyed Head RANGE HEADS – Flame Head 8 MELEE HEADS – Gulper Head ARCANE TAILS – Negation Tail 8 RANGE TAILS – Frost Tail 6 MELEE TAILS – Stinger 12 Vypex 1 HEAD – Asp 3 TAIL – Hunter’s Mark 8 ARMS – Impalers 19 Wyvern |
| Solos & Units | 4 Bellighul, Master of Pain 7 Quick Fang Stalkers 1 7 Quick Fang Stalkers 2 7 Talon Death Dealers 1 7 Talon Death Dealers 2 7 Talon Lashers 1 7 Talon Lashers 2 4 Wyrmspine Shadowmancers | 4 Bellighul, Master of Pain 2 Spinner 5 Wraithwing Paragon 9 Shades 7 Talon Lashers 1 7 Talon Lashers 2 4 Wyrmspine Shadowmancers |
| Command Cards | Blessing of the Gods Hit & Run Lucky Penny Put the Fires Out Sapper | Blessing of the Gods Duck and Cover! Lucky Penny Put the Fires Out Sapper |
| Points | 100/100 | 100/100 |
Kyrrax’s Arc
The Kyrrax list is easy to talk about. Its purpose is very singular. It’s there to destroy enemy melee swarms. Dark Operations, Infernals, certain types of Necrofactorium and Brineblood lists. What my Shyryss list is least comfortable with is enormous swarms so Kyrrax handles that for her.
Honourable mention to Old Umbrey, who I marked down as a “matchup to avoid” with my team. Old Umbrey are incredibly good at blunting melee alpha strikes, as such, they’re very effective against traditional Shadowflame Shard lists. The most success I’ve had there is by giving them too many bodies to handle at once and pressuring spread scenarios. So, if forced into it, I’d have dropped Kyrrax there too.
Triryss
Shyryss is my favourite warlock to play at the moment. I’ve tweaked and changed this list countless times over the year and it was only about two months ago, just prior to Welsh Masters, that I locked in the final WTC build.
Most of the army isn’t innovative. The Trikhymaerax (Trike) is one of the two commonly seen configurations. I prefer the Many-Eyed Head because I love what the combination of blessed/purgation does to your opponent’s choice of rack spells and use of upkeeps on the table. I also found with the Eyeless Head that I very rarely got to shoot the immensely fun Telekinetic Slam gun. Just by staying safe of the Trike’s 14” charging threat range, opponents would naturally also steer clear of the walk 6” + 8” shooting threat range of the slam gun. The Force Wall animus is of course amazing and if you do manage to fire the slam gun it can win you games with one shot. It just didn’t suit my playstyle, personally.
Double Talon Lashers, Belighul, Shadowmancers, Hunters Mark Vypex, and the Wraithwing Paragon are all very common choices with Shyryss so no explanation needed there.
The Spinner is mostly in the list to facilitate the Trike being forced to use Arcane Negation in the opponent’s turn. I can leave my beasts on low fury every turn and allow Shyryss to leach from her own health pool if Arcane Negation isn’t used. The Spinner then heals her back to full and off we go.
The two most commonly asked questions about this list were, why a Wyvern, and why no Pythia? Pythia is a brilliant little tool kit. I just realised she was support I could cut most of the time. Shyryss rarely casts spells that cost more than 2 fury so the free upkeep isn’t mandatory for her fury economy. Shyryss often doesn’t need to boost to hit either due to witchmarked ranged attacks allowing for auto hitting offensive spells. Between witchmark and my Vypex having the arc node head I found I could live without Pythia.
The Wyvern is my favourite little spin on the list. Folks preparing a counter for Shyryss and a Trike seem generally very well calibrated to deal with one big mobile heavy hitter at a time, and a bit extra for Skylla and Vypexes often seen supporting a Trike. The Wyvern charges further and hits harder than all the other warbeast options. So raw damage output is something I rarely lack for, and I have two big melee damage dealing threats opponents need to consider. The additional boostable high POW ranged attack also comes up more often than you’d think in combination with innate reposition 3” allowing for retreat from harm.
The Wyvern allows me to inflict near-colossal levels of damage output without needing to commit the Trike in situations I don’t want to. It was commented multiple times over the weekend that I play my Trike more defensively or conservatively than most Shadowflame Shard players. I threaten large areas of the board with early aggressive positioning, but unless an ideal situation comes up, the Trike is very rarely thrown into an early melee. Having the Wyvern to do melee heavy lifting absolutely enables that playstyle.
Perhaps most importantly for the team format, the Wyvern gives me an edge over other Shadowflame Shard players with Shyryss and a Trike of their own. A Trike is capable of killing another Trike in melee. This makes the mirror very cagey to play. But, a Wyvern is almost capable of killing a Trike too. I have two Trike-killing threats on the board to their one, a huge tactical advantage.
There’s a few other synergies too in that the Trike also helps the Wyvern out with one of its biggest problems which is protection from nasty enemy offensive spells thanks to Arcane Negation (or Shyryss’ Banishing Ward if they need to operate separately). The Wyvern’s Draconic Aura animus occasionally comes up as a +2 damage buff for the Trike’s Flame Head gun making it a POW 17/12 AOE 3 monster of a shot.
I must’ve played somewhere around 30 games against Huxley Storm Legion this year as part of WTC practice and the Wyvern was instrumental in becoming comfortable with that matchup. It’s often cagey and it feels like the Huxley player’s warjacks are a pack of wolves trying to encircle and takedown a wildebeest. Very effective at getting around the sides and killing the rest of my army.
The Wyvern plays a very positioning specific role where, if I am very careful, between its own shooting, the Trike’s shooting, and buffs from Shyryss’ Hand of Destruction spell, I can destroy a full health Stryker from range every turn. This is massively situationally dependant, but it comes up often enough that I marked Huxley as a positive matchup I wanted to see.
Between my list pairing I felt good against “most” Necrofactorium, Storm Legion, Winter Korps, Sea Raiders, Brineblood armies, and non-Infernals Armies of Legend.
I felt so so facing “most” Gravedigger, Infernals, and other Shadowflame Shard armies.
I asked to avoid Old Umbrey and House Kallyss players that included Hellyth with a Phantasm.
Meet England Paddington
What makes the WTC so special as an event is the team element. Practicing and preparing with other members of your team, if done right, can bring a level of camaraderie you’ll never forget. I’ve been to the WTC five times now, and each time I’ve been with a team of players I’ve loved spending time with. This year was without doubt the best I’ve ever experienced. The trust we had in each other to make the right calls, to give the right insights into players and tricky matchups, and to take difficult pairings for the benefit of the whole team has been unparalleled.
Chris Clare has been an outstanding captain. The beating heart of England Paddington. He created a matchup pairings strategy that’s been honed over years that none of us ever doubted. He took on ideas from the wider team and worked them into the plan. He pulled us together and picked us up when practice wasn’t going quite right. He listened to my endless “suggestions” about the team names and shirt designs (sorry Chris…). He also made the decision to switch to Gravediggers earlier in the year and stuck with them even when the wins didn’t immediately come for him. By WTC he was consistently beating me and others in practice and it was amazing to see him finally rewarded for his patience and persistence.
Jacob Graham is probably the most dangerous “gunslinger” I’ve ever seen. If you give his Brinebloods half a sniff at your leader, he’s very quick to calculate the odds and use that to pull wins from thin air. I recently re-learned this about Jacob when he killed Shyryss on turn 2 in our match at the Welsh Masters in September. He did this while Shyryss was protected by her feat, four fury, warping winds, arcane negation, and a BUILDING. When I did my own calculations following the game, he was absolutely right to go for it. Jacob was also responsible for building our “match up matrix” and handling the data from all our practice games. Yes, we recorded every single practice game once the team was selected.
Matt “Golly” Goligher has been playing the game almost as long as I have. I’ve never met anyone as good at late game decision making as Matt. It’s almost like the fewer models there are on the table, the more dangerous he is. I’ve seen him start losing games on War Table, only to make a devastating comeback, more times than I can count. Golly and I have played the Huxley Shyryss match more times than anyone really should and he’s the reason I’m so careful with my Talon Lashers and other flanking units. More than once I lost practice games to Golly’s Storm Legion because a single unit was misplaced in turns 1/2 that I really needed in turns 3/4. Matt also assisted Chris with running mock match up sessions where Chris could put his pairings strategy into practice.
And then there’s Zilvinas Aleksa… Zilva is some kind of biological anomaly that I don’t fully understand. One of the most lovely guys on the planet. He can come across very unassuming and happy go lucky. Zilva reminds me of Baymax from Big Hero 6. He’ll do the conversational equivalent of chasing butterflies and checking if you need medical assistance. Once combat mode gets engaged, he becomes cool as ice and absolutely focused on obliterating whatever gets placed in front of him. Zilva is the reason I realised years ago I needed to study Infernals to have any chance of beating them, or him. Zilva was on a ten WTC game winning streak going into this year’s event and having someone of that calibre on your team just cranking out results is a huge advantage.
The honorary sixth member of our team, my wife Chynna-Blue. Unfalteringly supportive of me joining the team, getting consistent practice games, team calls, playing War Table leagues, even if Paddington Bear doesn’t sit perfectly with her more gothic taste. During the most difficult games Chynna sat by my side and silently held my hand to help my nerves. Fun fact, because I try to maintain as much of a poker-face as possible during games. Chynna can’t always tell how I feel about how the game is going, even if she can read the game state for herself very well. So, we have a system: One gentle hand squeeze for “we’re okay”, two for “things are a bit shaky”, three for “we might be in trouble here”. There were multiple “three squeeze” occasions. I may have damaged her hand…
I also need to give a shoutout to the wider England teams, Kings Cross, Excalibears, the solo players, and selection committee. This is the first time we all practiced properly together and functioned like one team England. We shared list ideas, feedback, team and individual practice. Between the three teams we won 12 and lost 3 rounds at the WTC which is both outstanding and fitting for the level of preparation we all collectively put in. I’m immensely proud of all of them.
Preparation
I personally finished the 2024 WTC with only two wins and three losses. That didn’t sit well with me at all and I’ve felt all year like I have something to prove, mainly to myself. I had an impressive record of tournament wins once upon a time in Warmachine, but even then, the closest I came to winning the WTC was a semi final against Team USA the year they won it in Poland. I killboxed myself and lost on scenario to Will Pagani. It’s always been the event I struggled to compete at my best in. Lamenting that fact within earshot of Seth Cohen is the genesis for the nickname “Kitchen Table Legend”.
This basically started the moment we returned from the 2024 WTC. Having drawn the defending champions, Sweden Asgard, and lost the first round 2-3, we left the event feeling dissatisfied with our performance. We managed to finish the event with four round wins and only that one initial loss. Even so, it stoked a fire that quickly translated into early 2025 preparations.
As often happens post WTC, a number of players switched to new armies. 2024 England Lions player Brett Wilkie let us know he’d be taking a year out for study. Chris Daker stepped into a vacant selection committee role, Zilva was taking some time off. We had shoes we needed to fill.
The NAWL Team Championship in October was perfectly timed to give us an early live test of some potential new squadmates. Matt Goligher, Dean Booth, and David Seiferth joined myself and Chris Clare where I gave Chris a rest from captaincy responsibilities. We played a four-round digital tournament with one game taking place each week under the team name “Cobra Kai”.
Looking over the entrants list, you can see a plethora of WTC players giving new armies a runout as well as giving the Europeans a chance to face north American regulars of the “North American War Table League” (hence, NAWL).
We scrapped our way through three victories against two American teams and a Finnish team to make our way to the final round against an Australian team that included some of the WTC 2024 winning team. We gave them a bloody nose but lost the final 2-3 over five hotly contested but typically well mannered matches. There was a lot of mutual respect offered and we concluded proceedings by both expressing that we’d love to repeat the experience in Sweden if we got the chance.
Skip forward to April 2025, with the newly-minted team selected for Sweden later in the year, we entered the War Table Team Championship hosted by the inexhaustible Anton of the War Table League Discord server fame.
Still experimenting with army options. We all expected Zilva to return to his Infernals but this time we gave double Brinebloods a runout with Chris back in the driving seat leading the way with Winter Korps.
This time we went all the way, smashing through victories in all four rounds including what would become Sweden’s 1st team in round two and a mixed Germany team in the final. We felt strong, but we also knew we had more work to do.
We continued with army list experimentation. It was shortly after the War Table Team Championship that Chris switched over to Gravediggers, and Zilva took Infernals back up.
The selection committee ran a team practice day, led by Chris Daker, with invitations sent to all the UK clubs to join us for a little team event. 8 teams turned up and once again Paddington took the top spot.
On the verge of list submission most of the team attended the twin enormous solo events in the UK. Warmanchester, run by myself and my wife, Chynna-Blue, with 62 players in attendance including Chris, Golly, and Jacob.
This was shortly followed by the Welsh Masters, run by England Excalibear’s Martyn Jenkins, with 65 players in attendance including myself, Golly, and Jacob.
By the WTC list lock date, we’d all put in the time, the adjustments had been made (even if all Zilva did was swap Carver for Nostilla…), we’d done all we could do.
When the WTC lists were revealed, preparations continued anew. The whole England team united to offer practice games to each other. Using lists of notable players. We identified match up problems to avoid and favourable situations to be dropped into. We made notes of where ratings would change depending on the scenario being played. We earmarked big name threats.
This is where Chris, with some help from Golly and the rest of us, really got to work preparing drop strategies for every team. I’d relentlessly bang the drum for us to keep working to get every rating logged into the matrix. Problematic teams were identified and focused on until we had a plan for everyone.
This is a notable difference from 2024. Once lists were revealed last year, we’d put our ratings in and Chris had done his pairings strategy. However, there was definitely a notable dropoff in momentum for practice games and theory conversations. I also had to work out of the country at GenCon the week before WTC which meant I had about two weeks of no practice games. This time, we didn’t take our collective foot off the gas. If anything we intensified our preparations and played a much higher frequency of practice games in those last few weeks.
Getting to Ronneby
With Ronneby’s airport being quite small, getting to the venue took a few steps. Most flew in either to Stockholm or Copenhagen and took a train. Chynna and I’s route was the latter with a brief stopover in Copenhagen to sample the pastries and visit Tivoli Gardens (would recommend, it’s great!).
The next morning, after rising early to get breakfast and coffee, I realised I still had a little time to relax. I find music helps me set or reset my mental state. The thing is, I hadn’t been sleeping super well the last few weeks, I’d kept the volume down and I was VERY comfortable. So of course Chynna did what any loving partner would do and posted about it on Facebook.
The three-hour train journey to Ronneby was very pleasant (I know, I’m basic, I love trains okay). So plenty more time for “mental state” tunes and a sleep. So of course Chynna strikes again.
Upon arriving in Ronneby we checked into the accommodation at Ronneby Brunn (which again, was lovely). I’m always keen to get a warmup game or two on the Friday night of a big event. As soon as we’re able, we walk on over to the event hall to find a good 30ish people in there already playing games.
Pre-event pick-up games
Travis Marg promised me a game with his Necrofactorium (we’ve known each other for years but never had the chance to play since we’re usually running all the events when we’re together). However he was already mid game when I arrived.
Endre Fodstad introduces himself and we have a game instead. Endre is part of team Norway Munin’s Army of Legend heavy team and fields a Rhulic list led by General Ossrum against my Shyryss list. We play Best Laid Plans and unfortunately for Endre the central objectives disappear (33% of the time it happens everytime). This gives me a significant advantage in the game and I leverage it to grind out a win.
During my game with Endre, Travis finishes his, walks over, and checks to see if we’re still playing later. I confirm that I still want a game. To my horror, upon completing my game with Endre I walk over to see Travis JUST STARTING a new game. I of course ask him what he’s doing. He says “it’s fine, it’ll be a quick game”.
I look down at the table and see Sepsira Necrofactorium setting up to take on Cyphon Dark Ops with seven heavy monstrosities, and there’s no chess clock in sight.
This leaves me no choice other than to set up camp and proceed to troll Travis for most of his two hour “quick game”.
After which we manage a few turns of Sepsira vs Kyrrax. Travis positions his army excellently on Trench Warfare and forces me into an aggressive stance I don’t want to take. I take a risk to break the standoff that doesn’t pay off, lose most of my army the following turn, and we go for dinner once more arrivals turn up.
As throwaway as this game seems, this actually ends up being super relevant for round two the following day. But first, onto Game 1! Read the report here.
Warmanchester 
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