Game 6--pStryker vs 3Makeda (50pts)

Finally made it back out to Dragon's Lair to get a game in--only had time for 1 though because of the damn drive both ways and class in the morning, no matter though, got some experience out of it.

Played Incursion, a personal favorite of mine:

I played the same pStryker List I've been running, my opponent played something like:

3Makeda
-Molik Karn
-Bronzeback
-Gladiator
-Krea
Min Incendiarii
Min Nihilators
Max Paingivers
Willbreaker
Agonizer

I got the first turn, Deployed Stormwall Centrally with Stormblades and the Lancer on the Left, and Everything else on the Right.  My opponent deployed his Nihilators opposide my SBs, and the Incendiarii across from my Gunmages. Shit.

Turn one stuff ran.

Turn two, I'm feasibly in threat range of a lot of his stuff, which gives me a decent chance to deal with his superiority in numbers.  I allocate some focus, and run the Lancer up 10" away from the Agonizer (who had 3Makeda and a shield guard, as well as a few Nihilators next to it)  and Shot an Earthquake at it and feated.

It's at this point that I manage to miss the fact that I've knocked Makeda down, with no fury, and only one shieldguard.

Moving forward, I decide that maybe an assault with the stormblades would clear the nihilators out and even the numbers some... That works-ish, and kills a couple, but puts my Stormblades a little too far up with nothing to really protect them.  The GunMages shoot ineffectively at the Incendiarii, and the Cyclone pumps like 5 metal storm shots into them, killing 1.  Stormwall advances and takes 2 shots at the Bronzeback--who is regrettably in the krea bubble--Putting him at DEF14, or 8 to hit.  With 2 focus, I boost to hit the first shot and do no damage, and I think I miss the second shot?  Lame, yo.  I drop a pod in between the BB and SW so that something is in between the two (I think I was also basically out of charge range, but we'll see)

With my feat up Everything's at a lot of armor, so I feel not WHOLLY terrible about having a bunch of stuff more or less in the open.

Well, I should have been more scared.  This is the turn where things took a turn for the worse.  Makeda and Co. stand up-- The Nihilators stand up and advance, some take some swings and I think kill 1 stormblade?  Makeda feats and charges and kills a whole BUNCH of stuff. The Incendiarii Drop some well-placed fire on my GunMages, killing 2.   The Bronzeback moves over and is about to put Beatback on Karn when my opponent realized that it would replace Rush that Makeda put on him.  The Krea Charges and Kills one GunMage.  Karn basically charges and sidestep-beatbacks his way through what's left of my left flank, and then he and Makeda fatewalker over to the left objective, and my opponent scores 2 points.

So, my turn begins with fire checks on all but 2 of the gun mages, and all of those die, so the 2 remaining ATGMS take a command check and fail spectacularly, so my Right Flank collapses as well.  This basically leaves me with:  the Stormblades UA, Rhupert, the Lancer, and Jr on my Left, and a Cyclone on my right, with Stormwall, Stryker, and a Squire in the middle.  I try to go for an Earthquake on Karn, but I miss (I would have missed anyway, because he would have made me re-roll) and it deviates onto one of Makeda's shield guards and 2 Nihilators.  I decide that with the revelation of the re-roll, operation: 1-round Karn isn't going to pan out, so I switch focus to reclaiming the middle objective and contesting the left one.  My stormblades assault the shield guards.  My Banner one-shots the knocked down one, and the officer nearly kills the other. The Lancer pokes a nihilator and knocks him down with tough.  The Cyclone tries to shoot stuff but doesn't do much, and Stormwall tries to shoot up the gladiator, but alas, no luck.  He does, however, drop a pod within 4" of the far flag to contest.

My opponent's turn, nihilators and shieldguards basically kill my Stormblades UA (after a few tough rolls by my officer, thanks to Rhupert).  Makeda charges the Lancer and kills it after a while, putting SW in Vortex of Destruction.  The Gladiator charges it and kills it all by himself.  the bronzeback moves up next to it.  Shiiiit.  Incendiarii do a CRA on Stryker for a few points and kill the squire.  Molik Beats a few things up?  Makeda Fatewalkers away.

My turn, I've basically got the Cyclone and Stryker.  I have a half-baked scheme to put snipe on him and try to shoot makeda up, but Orin Midwinter's anti-magic bubble screws things up, so I basically get wildly out of place.

Next turn, the gladiator puts Rush on the Bronzeback, which charges through what used to be stormwall and beats Stryker to death.  On the plus side, Molik Karn missed 6 attacks on him first.

Result: Loss

So, what did I learn?  I'm not really sure.  I feel like some of that came down to bad matchups due to deployment... Once again, I see that Stormblades vs standard infantry is a bad way to go, and ATGM vs heavy infantry is also bad.  I had a few bad rolls with stormwall, but I really need to be getting better use out of his ranged game.

Definitely will have to keep in mind that Molik Karn can screw around with making you re-roll attacks that hit him.

Definitely have to watch out for giving 3Makeda ANY infantry to chew on, that feat turn could have been really nasty. (that being said, it was).

One thing to keep in mind would be to, you know, notice when I've knocked down my opponent's warlock with NO FURY.  I'll have nightmares about that one for a while.

I wouldn't say I feel discouraged, but I don't think I did a particularly good job there.

Thoughts on Dragon's Lair April Steamroller

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.

Game 5--pStryker vs Ossyan 50pts (Dragon's Lair Steamroller Round 3)

Alright, had some wifi trouble for a few days, so I've managed to forget some of the particulars of the last game, but here goes nothing:

Round Three ended up being my most fun game (I'd become somewhat more comfortable with rules and such).  The round was to be the Process of Elimination scenario:

My opponent ran something like:

Ossyan

-Hypnos

-Banshee

2x Stormfall Archers

Full Houseguard Helberdiers w/ UA

Full Mage Hunter Strikeforce w/ UA

Aiyana & Holt

eEiryss

Arcanist

I won the roll, and opted to go second, to try and take advantage of deployment (after my first game. Gah.)

I placed Stormwall basically centrally.  He deployed With his battlegroup mainly to my left-center, with Halbs on my right, and a unit of Stormfalls on either side.  I countered by placing my Stormblades vs the battlegroup on the left, and ATGM vs the Halbs.  Then he AD'd his MHSF in front of the battlegroup, opposite the  Stormblades.  Shit.

Turn one, he advanced, and put Quicken up on the Halbs (Def 15 HH's.  Shit.)  

My Turn one, I ran stuff--  put down some covering fire, but not far enough up to really be an issue (although with as fast as Quickened Halberdiers move, it might have been a good idea).  Stormwall advanced and Covering fired as well.  Stormwall got Arcane Shield, Gunmages got Snipe.

Turn two more stuff moved up (sort of constrained by my covering fire) Ossyan, Hypnos, and the MHSF shot up my lancer on a hill some, which pretty much neutered him.  Stormfalls threw AOEs, etc, at my dudes, and killed 1-2 ATGMs.

My turn two, my ATGMs tried to shoot up the Halberdiers, but just can't quite hit DEF 15, and with no way to strip the upkeep, there's not much other than covering fire I can use to keep them from claiming the Right Zone.   The Stormblades assault the Banshee, and on like 6 rolls at Dice-5 I manage to do like 7 damage?  Weak. Weak-weak-weak.  So, with the Stormblades hanging out in the wind, Stormwall had 3 FOC and used covering fire to try and screen the SB's some, and took 2 boosted shots at the Left objective, failing to kill it by 4 boxes.  The Lancer stays on a hill, I guess waiting for an opportune Earthquake moment?  Now that I'm thinking about it, I should have charged the objective, and bought attacks-- I would have been rolling straight dice and auto-hitting, which would have basically guaranteed me a CP, and would have put me further up the board when Stryker feated that turn.

My opponent was pretty bottled up by Covering Fire, and all of my stuff was ARM ridiculous.  He took some shots and killed some Stormblades and ATGMs, including the UA which made the Cyclone autonomous again. Hypnos shot Stormwall Overall, didn't lose any majorly important pieces, but some stuff I'd rather have kept around.  The Stormfalls proved effective again.

From here it's pretty fuzzy.    Stormwall advanced and killed the objective (1 CP! Hooray!), and I covering fired some more, and maybe the stormbades did some stuff?  I still really had no way to deal with Stealth, DEF 14 Mage Hunters en masse opposing Stormwall. I think my stuff pretty much struggled here.  The ATGM stood still and fired at the Halberdiers, but still didn't do a GREAT job at wiping them out.  

My Opponent's turn, he feated and just wiped Stormwall off the board with Stormfall Archers and a few Mage Hunters.  He did some significant damage elsewhere, but WOW.

Not too long after this, round time was called-- per the SR2013 Document, it's a mutual loss, but I conceded the victory to my opponent because I'm not a dick, and he pretty much had me.

Result: Loss

So, I think a few things went wrong here.  I should have DEFINITELY played more aggressive with Stormwall early, going into the Feat-- That would have given me a good chance to be further up the board to take advantage of him in Melee and drop pods for more precision piece removal.    My list had no way to offensively (or defensively, actually) strip upkeeps, so Quickened Halberdiers were a BIG problem for my anti-infantry guys.  My Opponent deployed the Mage Hunters REALLY well, on a side of the board with nothing to threaten them early on.  

A few things went against me, my dice rolls were just crap.  Failing to kill the objective was an error in judgment mainly, but I'll be having nightmares about the failed Stormblade Assault for months.  Going in at -5 when there's no way to actually get into Melee to seal the deal was risky, but I didn't think it was THAT risky.  

I think the game really came down to my opponent's ability to play a strong ranged game (with Stormfalls, his Battlegroup, and the MHSF) to really attrition me while I was mainly busy giggling about how much covering fire I was putting down on the table.  In all, I think I was a little too conservative in my play.  More aggression, and more abuse of the Stormwall's turn of ARM 27 seems like it would be the way to go.

Game 4--pStryker vs Absylonia 50pts (Dragon's Lair Steamroller Round 2)

Round two, ended up paired against Legion.  Sort of a tough Matchup with Blight Field from Absylonia.

He ran: 

Absylonia

-Archangel

-Angelius

-Naga Nightlurker

-Shredder

Full Legionnaires

Full Spawning Vessel

Anyssa Ryvall

2x Shepherd

2x Forsaken

Round 2 was Supply and Demand.  There were a few tough pieces of terrain to contend with.  I won the roll and opted to go Second to see if better deployment could see me through to a more agreeable outcome than my previous game.  

He placed the AA almost in the back left corner. I put my SW slightly left of center.  He had a long line of Legionnaires with the Pot behind them, and Anyssa on the right (from my perspective).  On the left was his battlegroup and support. 

I deployed for the right matchups-- Stormblades, SW, and the Lancer on the left vs the battlegroup, and ATGM on the right vs the infantry and Anyssa.

His first turn, he Ran Anyssa WAY far toward me.  Legionnaires ran up, etc.

I didn't move THAT far up the board for fear of long threat ranges.  I handed Snipe to the ATGMs, Arcane Shield to SW, and Blur on Stryker (???).  The Gunmages advanced and tried to shoot at Anyssa but couldn't connect.  I laid down some covering fire, more to make myself feel good.

My opponent moved the Archangel RIGHT to the center of the board, in front of the line of Legionnaires, and threw out 2 AOE's, one of which killed the Squire.  Anyssa moved up and took out a couple Gun Mages (including the UA, making my Cyclone Autonomous). Other stuff advanced.

My turn, the Gunmages advanced and one shot at Anyssa and missed.  The rest killed about 4 Legionnaires.  The autonomous cyclone dropped covering fire all up in her Business.  The Stormblades activated and went to Assault his Angelius.  The idea was to try and get a Stormgunner on him so that the rest of the unit would auto-hit and scrap him... but no such luck... I don't think a single one hit?  This left my Stormblades pretty bunched up and out in the open.  Stormwall advanced, and dropped a pod to kill one Legionnaire.  He took shots at AA, but missed both or something, then dropped some Covering Fire.  At this point, Stryker should have feated (and, obviously, didn't).

My Opponent's turn  AA charged SW and mercifully whiffed all of his initials.  Buying attacks he took out a little over a side.  Then the Angel Charged and did a pretty devastating armor piercing attack (both using Wraithbane to ignore Arcane Shield).  Stormwall had his movement and Pods intact.  Anyssa stood still and Killed some more Gunmages.  Legionnaires charged some of the Stormblades and killed some.  Absylonia Blight Fielded Stormwall and my Lancer (although there's not a TON I could have done anyway)

My next turn was pretty lackluster.  I assaulted again with the Stormblades, hoping to put SOME damage on something, but once more, that didn't work.  I don't remember what else I did, but I ONCE MORE didn't pop my feat.  Which was dumb. 

My opponent's turn, he armor-pierced SW to death, and AA charged Stryker and killed him pretty quickly. 

Result: Loss

Looking back, I'm not sure if I just played badly or what. Remembering the feat, my opponent and I worked out afterward, would have been 25 less damage that Stormwall would have taken on the one extra-devastating turn, so that seems significant.  I think I should have just been more aggressive again and tried to Jam with the feat turn and play for attrition.  The Stormblades need rangers or deadeye or SOMETHING to help them really be able to hit high-DEF heavies-- I'm confident that had the Stormgunner hit the Angel, the rest would have just annihilated it.  

Thinking about the Anyssa situation, it probably would have been worth it to do their CRA thing to try and just nail her to the wall, since she just invalidated them the whole game.

So, Round 2, biggest consideration is: remember to Feat, duh.

Game 3--pStryker vs eKaya 50pts (Dragon's Lair Steamroller Round 1)

Alright, so game 3 with Stryker, my first in a competitive setting.  Got paired against a really nice Circle player!  Round one was the Into the Breach Scenario

My Opponent ran something like:
eKaya
-Ghetorix
-Pureblood
-Stalker
Full Skinwalkers
Full Wolves + UA
Stones + UA

I ran the list I'd discussed previously:
pStryker
-Stormwall & Pods
-Lancer
-Squire
Stormblades + UA + 2 WA's
Arcane Tempest Gunmages + UA
-Cyclone
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord

So, my opponent won first turn.  I placed Stormwall pretty centrally. She deployed her Wolves and a Pureblood on my left (Going for the Zone) and the Skinwalkers, Ghetorix and the Stalker more to my right (Going for the Flag).   Seeing all this, I was essentially very foolish and put my Stormblades vs the Wolves, and ATGM vs the Skinwalkers, which is, obviously, the exact opposite of what I should have done.

So Turn one, everybody pretty much ran. Stormwall gets Arcane Shield, Stormblades get Snipe. Stormwall and the Cyclone dropped some Covering fire templates.  Turn two she moved a bunch of Wolves and the Pureblood into the zone, and some Skinwalkers up toward the flag, and the stones teleport, getting two in B2B with the flag.

My turn two takes for damn ever. Stormwall moves up and tries to drop some Covering Fire, and Shoot one of the skinwalkers (who he does a point of damage to). The Gunmages move up and shoot at the Stones, killing the Stonekeeper. (I'd hoped this would leave them out of formation, but alas. The Cyclone dropped some Covering Fire as well.

I give the Stormblades Dirge of Mists (which I forgot about), and they assault.  The idea was to try and assault the pureblood behind a couple of wolves, but because it had Stealth from Kaya's Shadow Pack, I would have only gotten like two shots on it.  So, they assaulted and killed like 3-4 Wolves.  So at the end of my turn two, I had moved up pretty far, leaving myself a little exposed. My memory here gets a little fuzzy.

At the end of my turn, my Opponent got a Control Point for controlling the flag (5 CP's to win).  She charged my Lancer with the Stalker and left it with one box.  The Wolves minifeated and killed a few Stormblades. Ghetorix moved up getting ready to charge Stormwall.  The Skinwalkers move up and surround the flag.  My Oponent gets another CP (2/5)

My turn, I have Stormwall within charge range of either the Stalker (DEF 14) or Ghetorix (DEF 16 w/ Forced Evolution).  So, either one I would be hard for me to hit with my wimpy MAT 6.  What I should have done was Allocate 3 to Stormwall, have Stryker cast Earthquake at my Lancer  (although his DEF would also have been pretty high at a 15, but with a boost and a re-roll from the Squire, I feel OK about it) to knock down a few wolves and the Stalker, and Pop Feat.  And then Charge it and kill it with Stormwall (although Stormblades may have been able to accomplish this by themselves if the Stalker was KD'd).  That would have put my Opponent down 1 heavy, with my ARM 27 Colossal right on her Doorstep.

What I actually did was Allocate 3 to Stormwall, move up with Stryker and cast Earthquake on one of the Skinwalkers who looked like he was close enough to Ghetorix, but was woefully just outside the 5" AOE.  With Stryker exposed, and neither Warpwolf knocked down, I balked and decided to Walk up around Stryker (did I mention I put Stryker in the way?) and Power Strike the Stalker-- I managed to hit and boost damage to knock some points off and Slam him a few inches away, which killed 2 Wolves and knocked him down.   My Stormblades did something uninteresting... I think they killed some wolves?  The Gunmages did pretty OK.  Two shot thunderbolts at Ghetorix.  One missed, the other pushed him back 3". The rest moved up and decided to Crit Brutal into the skinwalkers, which removed a 1-2 and put damage on some.  The Cyclone decided to actually use the metal storms and got 5 shots which got the unit below 50% and killed a Stone.    This all being said, I totally forgot to feat, so poor Stormwall was Hung out to dry waiting for Ghetorix's inevitable charge.

All I remember about the next turn is that Ghetorix Charged Stormwall and beat him up pretty bad.  My final turn, I had 1 minute left on my Death Clock, so I allocated to Stormwall, Decided to do a fully boosted powerstrike and knocked him back 3" and did some damage, before Clocking myself.

Result: Loss
 I guess Technically by the clock, but my sloppy play wasn't doing me any favors here.  I need to get a LOT more practice to try and knock some of the rust off.

As far as what I can take away from this game, I think there were some pretty big mistakes that were made-- essentially deploying backwards (ATGM vs Medium Infantry and Beasts with Stormblades vs Infantry).  The turn 3 Debacle where I should have Charged the stalker didn't help either.

This was the first of a couple of games where I ended up forgetting my damn feat.  So, in short.  Be more aggressive, Jam with the feat (ARM 27 SW, ARM 20 SB's).

Thinking About Lists...

So, it's late and I'm up, trying to figure out a list to bring to Dragon Lair's WM/H Tourney on Saturday... It's a 50 Point, 2-list optional event, but I want to just focus on one list--I feel like that will consolidate the learning experience some and help me make some greater sense of it.

At the moment, I'm mainly thinking of trying to maximize my painted models, which I outlined the other day...

So, at the moment, here's what we're looking at:

pStryker (+6)
-Stormwall & Pods (19)
-Lancer (6)
-Squire (2)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages + UA (8)
-Cyclone (9)
Stormblades + UA + 2 WA's (10)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (2)

I wish that I could fit some Stormcallers in there after feeling like they did so well in my last two games, but the main purpose of tomorrow is just to get some practice in.  As far as the list goes, it's the same general idea as my 35 point list from earlier, but expanded a bit to include Stormblades.

There was some back-and-forth with a friend of mine about whether or not to use the UA (for Assault), mostly because I'm worried about the ability taking up time, but being that the event is running on a Deathclock, I feel somewhat safe about it.

The overall plan is that turn one, Arcane Shield goes on Stormwall, Snipe on the Stormblades, and Blur on the Gun Mages, and basically advance to try and get relevant in scenarios, and then push for attrition with a strong shooting game between Stormwall, the ATGMs and Stormblades.  I want to try and assault early with the Stormblades, and have Rhupert give them tough, and screen them with covering fire, to hopefully keep them from being annihilated by a counter-charge.

The Cyclone was added to the ATGM's (at the cost of losing the Journeyman) in order to provide another 2 Covering Fire templates for some strong area denial.  It's a pretty versatile ability that should help me to dictate the flow of the game, or to try to make the best of a bad situation.

The goal before the tournament is to become familiar with all my rules-- specifically with the Stormblades and Stormwall, which are somewhat more complex than anything else, and that I'm still pretty new to.

Game 2--pStryker vs eKreuger 35pts

After the sort of disappointing end to the last game, my buddy and I decided to try and squeeze another game in.

I ran the same list, he ran the Mohsar list and just swapped casters out:

eKreuger
-Megalith
-Stalker
-Gorax
Bloodtrackers + UA
Shifting Stones + UA
Blackclad
Wilder
Gallows Grove

My opponent got first turn.  Setup was pretty similar to the previous game.  I had Stormwall anchor my right side.  ATGM ended up opposite the bloodtrackers again.

Turn one my Opponent ran things forward, and TK'd his battlegroup up.  My turn one was pretty active.  Stormwall advanced, Dropped a pod (killing a bloodtracker), and put covering fire up in front of some more of them.  He took a big gun shot at Megalith and missed (needing a 4).  I screwed up the facing, leaving me to shoot the blackclad (which I miraculously hit).  Stryker put Snipe on the ATGMs and they managed to do kill off quite a few of the Bloodtrackers.  Two of the stormcallers killed a couple more bloodtrackers.

So, I started off pretty well off in the attrition game.  But I saw that I'd made the same mistake as I had in the previous game-- leaving Stormwall potentially in charge range of the Stalker without Stryker's feat up.  I had killed the blackclad earlier so he couldn't use hunter's mark to get the extra charge range... so maybe the stalker was out of range.  He ended up running megalith to engage my Lancer (who was screening Stryker), and the Stalker behind that, and ended his turn.

My turn, I loaded Stormwall with Focus, walked up and killed megalith, and put some damage on the Stalker (but couldn't connect reliably because of DEF 14).  I also dropped a pod that killed a few support pieces, and then had the Gun mages (standing still) activate-- One thunderbolted him out of Melee range with SW, and the rest crit brutal'd him to put some damage up, and Jr. Finished him off with a boosted shot and arcane bolt.  Stormcallers triangulated a TON and removed most of the chaff, leaving my opponent with relatively little still on the board.

At that point, we had to take off, and decided to call the game a victory-ish for me.

Result: Win by Attrition

So, I think I by and large improved over the first game. My plan was much more fluid and I was better able to keep my eyes on the prize as far as the attrition game went.  It was dumb luck that I'd killed the blackclad (due to a positioning error on my part), which I think led to the stalker not being able to charge the next turn-- but I should have put my feat up that turn just in case.

Stormcallers are really good.  They're a really interesting way to handle lower-arm models with a surprising deal of relative precision.  Being able to drop pods and triangulate essentially on-demand proved VERY useful.

I'm not sure about bringing a lancer with the list-- His ideal role is to arc a clutch Earthquake onto a pod in order to tangentially knock down a high def target (casters, etc.).  That being said, he doesn't really contribute outside of that situational usefulness, and I'm beginning to feel like the 6 points could be better spent elsewhere.

Once again, Gun Mages with Snipe from pStryker are the MVPs of the game-- Wiping the bloodtrackers out and then going after chaff behind them, as well as being able to push high-threat heavies around is invaluable.


There's a tournament at Dragon's Lair this upcoming Saturday that I'll be planning on bringing a crappy list to, but hopefully it will shed some light on how I want the list to work at 50pts.  (I won't be able to have a 2nd Stormwall though, as mine isn't assembled.)

Game 1--pStryker vs Mohsar 35pts

Got my first game in today with the new Cygnar stuff against a friend.  Ran the following list:

pStryker

-Stormwall

-Lancer

-Squire

ATGM+UA

Journeyman

3x Stormcallers

My buddy ran something like:

Mohsar

-Megalith

-Stalker

-Gorax

Bloodtrackers+UA

Stones+UA

Blackclad

Wilder

I got the first turn, set up pretty centrally, with Stormwall just right of the middle so as not to be stuck behind a wall near the center.  Gunmages were on the righthand side, across from where my opponent put his Bloodtrackers

First turns were pretty standard Ran/Advanced everything in order to get into position.  Stryker and Stormwall both got Arcane Shield, Gunmages got Blur and sat on a hill, being careful not to get too close to the Bloodtrackers.

Second turn, I put Snipe on the Gunmages and they just about wiped the bloodtrackers out.  Stormwall advanced, dropped covering fire, and presumably shot big guns and dropped a pod.  In the end I left him too close and forgot to feat with Stryker.  The gunmages with snipe tried to long-range Thunderbolt the stalker out of the Shifting stones (and out of charge range) but no luck. With a combo of Curse of Shadows and Primal, the Stalker did a TON of damage, and left the Stormwall with 7 boxes.

My next turn I felt pretty vulnerable and thought I should try a janky assassination which failed miserably.  My opponent had Megalith up behind a tight triangle of shifting Stones-- Had I killed one stone, or the UA, I would have been able to deny my opponent the ability to charge (or really do anything) with Megalith, which would have been wayyy better than some half-assed assassination.

We kept playing, I attritioned him down pretty far with the weight of a TON of low-pow attacks, and we called the game a draw, after realizing that with a scenario and timed rounds, the game likely wouldn't get to this point where it degenerates between his ability to place pillars of salt and my ability to ping away at his few remaining models while pushing them back, and backing away.

Result: Draw

So, probably my biggest mistake was forgetting to feat-- although had I seen the charge lane, I might have dropped the lightning pod there in order to block it.  After that, I should have been more focused on trying to stay ahead attrition-wise and deny the Megalith charge that ended up killing Stormwall.  

A few things seemed pretty good-- Triangulation between a pod or two and the Stormcallers is an awesome ability.  Stormwall didn't get to do much, but I was pretty impressed by how MUCH he can do in an activation. 

I think the game was so-so.  Pretty rusty on both sides, mistakes were made, lessons learned. I don't think I'm too ready to judge anything based on this one game.

It's Been a While... or Why I Play Cygnar Now.

To make a long story short (ish), the last 2 years in gaming has gone like this:  Got into WM/H with Thornfall, but found them lacking.  Played Mortenebra T4 in Hardcore, had fun, actually won games… Needed a “big boy faction” to play… went something like Skorne, Cygnar, Legion.. Then I decided that I just had to dump money into one so deep that I had no choice but to stick it out.  Spent the fall doing a commission (my last, incidentally). Around the Holidays I discovered bartertown, and swapped Legion for Trolls.  Played them, got some more trolls, got dissatisfied, and swapped again for Cygnar.

Why the switch to Cygnar?  I guess I had sort of an intangible sense of dissatisfaction with the faction and where they were headed, but basically, boo-hoo I want to play with a good Collossal that I can justify buying two of. 

TL;DR: Stormwall FTW.

So, what are my plans for Cygnar?  Right now, I’ve got the following painted:

pStryker

Stormwall and Pods

Lancer

Plastic Stormblades w/ UA and 3 WA’s

Oldschool Gun Mages (who, after painting, I don’t hate)

Journeyman

Which is almost enough for my 35 point list (more on that later), with a few more utility solos that need painting up.  But right now the plan is to work on 3 lists (one after the other).

--My First order of business is that I want to work on a Double Stormwall list, which by this point is pretty cliché, but it’s one of my definite goals with the faction, so I feel I should really hammer it out first just to have it done.  To accomplish this I’m either looking at pStryker, Kraye, or Darius. 

Stryker seems toolboxy and gives me access to 2 Arcane Shields (not to mention the feat) for some High-Arm goodness.  Blur and Snipe let him support whatever else he’s bringing—Not totally sure what that would be. So, he’s got all the same problems he does anywhere else where he suffers from being a generalist—He’s not going to run the Stormwalls AMAZINGLY, but the job will get done, and he can answer a variety of situations and help support his army as a whole better than a straight-up Jack Caster.

Kraye brings some pretty good tools to the table for double Stormwalls.  The most obvious being Guided Fire for boosted ranged attack rolls (3 FOC, vs 4 FOC just for boosting the big guns… even more if I decide to actually use the Metal Storms).  Mage Sight has some interesting potential to allow the guns to pick out stealth or concealed targets.  Full Tilt will probably come up sometimes and will have some pretty interesting uses as far as just being able to advance really far... But I can’t see myself casting it Turn 1 and leaving it up for the rest of the game. Finally, the feat definitely has some potential to help get some charges off, as well as change their facing, which I know will matter a great deal with their fields of fire.

Darius in his NQ teir brings some interesting stuff to the Double Stormwall goals. Getting 5 Stormcallers and +2 SPD on Stormwalls the first turn is pretty fantastic. Darius himself brings some potential stuff—Fortify gives the list an ARM buff, and the Feat builds on this to remove ideally a TON of damage.  Jackhammer is interesting to clear some chaff out of the way, or to let SW run and then make attacks on something?  Full throttle helps a good bit with focus efficiency, but only if I plan to make it a REALLY melee heavy turn.  

So, I don't know.  Food for thought.