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.

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.