So, looking back at my performance at the Tourney over the weekend, not great. Not bad, considering they accounted for 3 of my first 5 games with Cygnar, but not great either.
For Reference:
Round 1: vs eKaya
Round 2: vs Absylonia
Round 3: vs Ossyan
The list I ran did ok, but It needs some revision, for sure.
pStryker
-Stormwall & Pods
-Lancer
-Squire
ATGM+UA
-Cyclone
Stormblades+UA+2 WA's
Rhupert
What Worked:
-Covering Fire: I feel I relied on it too much, but where it went, enemy infantry stayed away. Very powerful board control from SW and the Cyclone.
-Stormwall: The couple of times I manned up and used it, Stormwall didn't let me down.
-Support: Squire and Rhupert basically always work, duh.
-Stryker: I see the potential, and I think the losses are mainly user error, although it's difficult going into a game with a mindset of "my caster has no significant strong suits other than being able to handle a variety of situations." With Mortenebra, I knew the goal was a roundabout 'Jack bullet, with Carver, it was the Feat turn of Doom. I think Stryker might just be a sort of bizarre 1-turn jam Caster who focuses on combined arms support.
What Didn't Work: (almost all of this amounts to basically my fault)
-ATGM: People saw them coming, and as my obvious answer to stealth, Stealth AD units got deployed away from them.
-Marshaled Cyclone: 2/3 games the ATGM UA got scalpeled out of the unit and the Jack became Autonomous. Not a HUGE problem, but it definitely limited me in a few scenarios.
-Stormblades: Probably user error. Went after the wrong targets (the Angelius was dumb, the Banshee was just bad luck), assaulted a LITTLE too early, couldn't get them into melee, couldn't totally seal the deal.
-Not being able to strip upkeeps. I feel like the list wants eEiryss. I feel like all lists want eEiryss.
As far as my analysis of my play in the couple of games, I really like covering fire. I really like being able to point to infantry and say "you can't go here." Especially in my 3rd Round, I felt like it was sort of a crutch for my inability to remove DEF 15 Halberdiers, where, because they weren't coming at me, I could just advance at a leisurely pace. That didn't really pan out. I think if I use covering fire to bottle infantry up and advance up the board as quickly as I can to prepare for a feat-turn Jam, that has some potential.
My Lancer has been running turn one and usually ends up overexposed. I think I need to keep him somewhat central and ready to take a focus and run into position for an opportune earthquake, rather than being on his own, hoping he doesn't get engaged.
There are a few places to take the list from here that I'll probably try out at some point.. Double Stormwall to take advantage of ARM stacking, Could take a really balanced approach (overall, probably the best idea), or could try and do more of a gunline to take advantage of the covering fire standoff I create in the space between armies.
At this point though, I'll say that the list I ran the other day seems to be made up of models that work well together, and it deserves some more practice before I move onto greener pastures.
So obviously it's been a while since this tournament, but I just found your blog (via BoLS).
ReplyDeleteyou seem to have your list pretty well thought out and picked out most of the things that went wrong in your games. the couple of things I noticed:
Stormblades seem like they should be better than they are. it is probably the target selection, or expecting them to do too much, but I've almost never seen them do well. cranking their armor with Stryker is good, but still... not sure what else you would use in their place though.
The big one I wanted to point out though was the fact that you're cheating yourself with that Marshalled Cyclone. if the officer dies, his jack marshalling responsibilities just get passed to the new leader. the only thing you lose from an officer is any drive they have, like Pronto from the Sentinel UA. see page 80 of Prime. in fact they use ATGMs as their example in the section on units as jack marshals.
Thanks for the feedback!
DeleteI really like the new Stormblade models, but yeah, I've just never had them pull their weight (or really any weight?). I guess I see their ideal situation in my mind's eye-- Had one of the Stormgunners rolled WELL above average, I would totally have annihilated that Angelius. But, it's just so much easier said than done. I think the problem is also that, after they assault, they're usually WAY up the table, at a measly DEF12/ARM15 just waiting for whatever comes along to kill them. Maybe they have tough from Rhupert, but it just isn't really a reliable statline, so I end up trading a lot of infantry for a beast or something.
WHAT? The Cyclone stays useful?? Man, that... revolutionizes things. I was pretty ready to give up on that whole thing, but... that solves a lot of problems! Thanks for pointing that out!