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).

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.