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 2--Jarl v Garryth 35pts

Right after my first loss, I decided to play another pick-up game with another friend playing Retribution at 35pts

I brought:
Jarl
-Mauler
-Bomber
-Impaler
-Runeshaper
Full Fennblades w/ UA
Fell Caller
Whelps

He was running (I think):
Garryth
-Phoenix
Full Sentinels w/ UA
Aiyana and Holt
House Shyeel Artificer
Mage Hunter Assassin
Akantrik Force Generator

We rolled the Ammunition Run Scenario, and I got first turn.

Top of 1: I put Quicken on the Fennblades and Weald Secrets on Jarl, and advanced into a forest. (I think I thought Weald Secrets gave me Prowl instead of Camouflage, but a DEF bonus is always nice I guess).  The Fennblades run up a respectable 16" into the center zone and everything else plays catchup.

Bottom of 1: He moves his Sentinels up into defensive line (I think they ran?).  Garryth moved up behind a wall, and I totally miss him putting Mirage up on the Sentinels.  Other stuff moves up, and the AFG shoots a 4" difficult terrain AOE into the zone, killing one unlucky Fennblade.

Top of 2: I see a chance to mess stuff up.  I upkeep Quicken and Weald Secrets.  The Fell Caller moves up and chants +2 MAT on the Fennblades.  The Fennblades UA pops their Mini-Feat, and they charge across the table, with 4 or 5 making it into the Sentinels, 1 into Holt, and another into the Mage Hunter Assassin.  The rest make it well into the zone.  They kill 4 Sentinels, and miss Holt and the Assassin.  Bummer.  The Impaler puts Far Strike on Jarl and advances.  The Bomber and Mauler Rile/Run to get enough Fury on the board.  The Mauler is poised to take out the central objective next turn.  The Runebearer puts his Discount on Jarl and advances.  Jarl advances, casts Magic Bullet and takes a 16" shot at the Phoenix, for 6 points of Damage on its field.  Magic Bullet bounces into Aiyana and kills her.  Jarl then casts Tactical Supremacy on the Fennblades, and pops his feat, placing a full 6 clouds in a sort of arc.  The Fennblades use their Tactical Supremacy move to micro back 3" into the clouds.

Bottom of 2: The Sentinels move up with vengeance, and a couple are able to kill Fennblades.  They then get to move for Mirage, and all get in position to charge.  Then they charge and just about annihilate my Fennblade unit.  Bummer. the AFG and Holt gun down a few more Fennblades, and the Assassin kills the one in Melee with her.  This leaves me with about 2 left?  A few of the Sentinels were bunched up, so the House Shyeel Artificer advances and makes them all immune to Blast Damage.The clouds didn't do a whole lot, but they did block line of sight to more important targets.

Top of 3: Clouds disappear, I drop all my upkeeps.  I'm looking at an assload of really fast weaponmasters on my doorstep, and I need to do something about it.  A lot of them are bunched up, perfect for my Bomber (although, probably a little too high armor for the bomber to be WILDLY effective, but who knows) but they're immune to Blast Damage, so the Artificer is public enemy #1.  The Impaler advances and puts Far Strike on Jarl, then throws a spear and Crit Smites one Sentinel through another, killing them both.  Jarl advances, and takes a shot at him, and does some damage.  He takes a second shot and misses or doesn't do enough damage, I don't recall.  Seeing himself hella exposed, he puts Tactical Supremacy on himself in hopes of surviving.  The Mauler advances and beats the central objective to death, which then explodes and kills one Sentinel and earns me a Control Point (and sets the mauler on fire!).  The Bomber advances and tries to throw a bomb at the Artificer, but misses or something.  The Fell Caller and other stuff moves into the zone to try and help contest, and finally Jarl backs up some with Tactical Supremacy.

Bottom of 3: Garryth gives 3 Focus to the Phoenix.  The Sentinels use their Vengeance Move and Mirage to get in position, then HELLA CHARGE my Bomber and other stuff, killing all of it.  YIKES!  Some stuff might have made their Tough Rolls, but still, yikes.  The Phoenix charges the Mauler and beats it up pretty bad. The AFG takes a shot at poor, defenseless Jarl and does like 15 points of Damage. I transfer to the Mauler, which kills him and sends 2 damage back at Jarl.  Garryth moves up and takes a few shots, which Kill Jarl, but I make a Tough Check.  Holt shoots Jarl, and I tough.  Then he shoots him again and I finally die.

Garryth Wins by Assassination.

So, looking back, the first thing I have to question was the use of Tactical Supremacy to move the Fennblades backwards.  Maybe if I'd moved them up and jammed the rest of the Sentinels, they wouldn't have punched so far into my lines?  Although, there's always the chance that they'd wipe the fenns off the board with just Vengeance Attacks, so who knows  Maybe if I ran Jarl up turn 1 to try and get the feat clouds to debuff the Sentinels' MAT when I jammed them that would have helped, but that'd be a lot of running for poor Jarl.

The Fennblades' survivability is called into question again.  I feel like I need a unit that can dish out some hurt, but be able to hold the line against standard frontline infantry like Sentinels or Praetorian Swordsmen.  Kriel Warriors with Steady could be a big plus, or Boomhowlers with +4 Tough (as well as Rage Howler, etc.).

I left the Mauler and the Bomber WAY too close together at the end of Turn 3, which made it pretty easy for him to take both out.  And, finally, Jarl was just too exposed.  Maybe if I'd brought Swamp Gobbers, that would have helped some.  Janissa's wall would be nice, but I feel like she's inevitably going to want to go with the pDoomshaper list I'll want to build, so I'm trying to avoid needing her in this list.

One thing I feel like I'm missing is adequate Ranged Attrition?  I feel as though relying on the Bomber may not be a good call, although at this point the Bomber hasn't really been able to do anything, so there may be hope for him yet.

Lessons Learned:
- Whelps, Whelps, Whelps
- Spread Beasts out more
- MAYBE I should have waited some on the ridiculous Fennblade charge.  They killed all the Sentinels they touched, so maybe if I'd waited for them to come into range, I would have been able to clear them out.
- Instead of shooting at the Artificer, I should have taken Jarl and Magic Bullet to reduce the Sentinels, probably 2-4 guys.

Overall, I'm really happy with Jarl.  I really enjoy his ability to take the Impaler's animus and scalpel out key models (Aiyana, in this game).  Though, I feel like Magic Bullet should be explored against infantry grunts as well, because they ended up being a bigger problem.  I want to play a few more games with this list, but at the moment, I'm on the fence about Fennblades and the Bomber.  At this point, though, I'm willing to entertain the possibility that the Fennblades' lack of success is due to my not using them correctly, and the Bomber's lack of success has been mostly that there haven't been any real targets for him to shoot at, but we'll see.

I feel like I played better in this game than my first, which is always a good sign.