35pt Bat-Rep: Cygnar (3Mo) vs Cryx (eGaspy)

Battle Report #2 - Meeplemart on a Tuesday evening


Pre-game Thoughts:
Wow!  Finally I'm able to get a hand on the new Legendary Nemo and Finch models.  They're super-highly detailed, and seem quite small in comparison to some of the other models in the line. They're also a little more realistically thin in parts. (Think Kayazy Eliminators.)  After reading the spoilers and looking at the card in person, I decided to assemble them right then and there are the store, and proceed to play a 35pt Caster Kill vs... at the time I had no idea who I was up against.  I just made a generic 35pt list that was pretty much all lightning and went for it.  Turns out it was against a super infantry-heavy eGaspy, and an experienced player, but a player who hasn't played in a few months and was quite rusty.

N3mo (+3)
-Thunderhead (12)
-Stormclad (10)
-Finch (0)
Stormblades w UA (8)
Storm Tower (2)
Storm Tower (2)
Stormsmith Stormcaller x 3 (3)
Reinholt (1) - The only non-lightning immune model in the army


eGaspy (+6)
-Canker Wurm
-Boneripper
Bane Knights (max)
Bane Thralls (max) w UA
Bile Thralls (max)
Bane Lord Terminous
Gerlack Slaughterborn
Gorman

Mission: Caster-Kill
... As a general rule, I'm not too keen on Caster Kill w/o the receding Killbox rule.  (Receding is something that a different circle of players and I have used in the past, where each turn the space gets smaller by an Inch.  So it starts at 10" from table-edges, then becomes 11", then 12", etc.  Without Killbox I feel like casters that can teleport can become nigh unkillable.)

TURN 1
Cygnar wins the roll off, and does what most Warmachine Armies do best, run and apply upkeeps.  The Towers take to advangeous positions, the Blades run forward, T-Head and Stormy also run forward while N3mo casts Failsafe on the Stormclad, and Electrify on T-Head.  The Smiths run to keep clear Triangulation lines.

Cryx does something very similar, and advances eGaspy behind a house and throws down some Caustic Mist templates to cover his advance.  He also casts Hellbound.  His Bane Thralls advance warily, as do his Bane Knights and Bile Thralls.  Gorman drops a cloud to protect more infantry.  He does not like the idea of electro-leaping attacks into his valuable and deadly infantry.



TURN 2
N3mo upkeeps Electrify for free due to Finch, and Failsafe for 1, and then extends his CTRL radius by 2" leaving him with 4 focus.  Reinholt activates and uses Reload on N3mo.  The Blades advance but stay pretty far back, mostly just re-positioning.  The Storm Towers shuffle about a little for better positioning, the Thunderhead moves to take advantage of a wall, and the Stormclad shuffles a little as well.  Sacrificing himself for N3mo's cause, the lone Stormsmith on the right flank runs upwards towards the Bane Thralls on Cygnar's right, and turns himself so that his back is facing N3mo and isn't engaging the Bane Thrall in front of him.  N3mo sees his chance to fry some stealthed Bane's and 2 shots from his Accumulator into the back of the Stormsmith yields 4 leaps total, which N3mo promptly boosts damage on, scoring 4 kills.  The other two Stormsmiths advance up the left flank.

Cryx seems taken aback from this technique, and immediately is put on the back heel.  eGaspy upkeeps Hellbound and places his Soul Collection template under the Stormsmith in front of his Bane Thralls, and then his forces shuffle forward a little bit, and proceed cautiously under Caustic Mist and Gorman's cloud.  Gerlack follows the Bane Knights down towards the Forest, and Bane Lord Tarterous gets some vengeance for his fallen Banes, charging and killing the Stormsmith and adding back at least one more member to his ranks.



TURN 3
With no significant Cryx advance, N3mo's forces move on the defensive, hiding behind their advanced technology.  N3mo upkeeps Electrify for free, and Failsafe for 1.  He again extends his control radius by 2".  The Blades shimmy more towards the left flank, selecting that area as their battleground for later in the match.  Reinholt reloads N3mo.  The two Stormsmiths advance up the left flank, with the far one being just out of range for a Strike, and the other one failing his check.  The Storm Tower on the left fires into the back of the Stormsmith and misses on a 3.  The Jacks retreat a little, keeping the Banes at arms length.  N3mo steps up to plate and advances, and boosts a shot into the back of the Stormsmith, landing a solid hit, and rolling a 2 for eleaps.  He then proceeds to boost those 2 damage rolls, and kills 2 Bane Knights.

Cryx uses the Vengeance move to get into better position with his Knights, preparing to kill some models.  eGaspy upkeeps Hellbound and Arcs an Excarnate into the Stormsmith engaging one of his Knights and forgets about the -4 penalty to hit due to being in melee and misses.  He finishes his activation by placing 2 Caustic Mists.  Cryx then advances with its forces just a little, keeping the Biles in the back.  The Banes on the right side move into the forest, with the goal to circle about the house and charge in from the side.  The Knights issue a charge order, and some run up while only 2 of them engage my Stormsmiths.  They both proceed to roll 6s to hit, and leave both Stormsmiths standing.



TURN 4
N3mo upkeeps Electrify & Failsafe for 1 focus, and holds on to the rest of his 6 focus.  The Stormblades finally get to assault, but mostly they run to the left side of the board.  One model however shoots at a Bane Knight engaging a Stormsmith and misses.  Also, one of the models ran out of formation and directly in front of the Caustic Mist.  The Smiths advanced and one of the failed his skill check against the Arc Node, but still managed to engage it in melee while staying engaged with the Bane Knight that attacked him last turn.  The other attempted a Surge between the two of them and although he succeeded with both skill checks, failed to pierce the armour of the Bane Knights on both accounts.  The left Stormtower shot the Stormblade in the back and the eleap couldn't pierce the armour of the Bane Knight.  Reinholt advanced and used Lucky Charm on N3mo.  Finally N3mo stepped up and targeted the Stormblade near the Caustic mist in the back with Chain lightning.  Hoping for some big leaps, he rolled a 2.  Sadly this wasn't nearly enough to chain into the Bile Thralls behind the Knights, and simply managed to kill off a couple Bane Knights.

The Cryxian forces finally saw a chance to inflict some pain.  The Knights Vengeance'd upwards and killed off the left Stormsmith.  eGaspy upkept Hellbound, advanced and used Daemortus to place a template to collect the souls of the Stormblade out of formation and the Stormsmith.  He then cast Caustic mist 3 more times to cover the advance of his Bane Thralls.  The Bane Knights received a Charge order and managed to kill off three Stormblades, as well as the Stormsmith, and move up into a very threatening position.  Gerlack Slaughterborn advanced up into the forest for added protection, ready to cleave the remaining Stormblades asunder.  The rest of his force advanced, getting ready to strike the Jacks... and ultimately N3mo.



TURN 5
N3mo doesn't like where this is going, and orders his forces to strike like a bolt of lightning in the name of King Leto.  He upkeeps Electrify and Failsafe, allocates 2 focus to the Thunderhead (which becomes 3 due to Finch) and keeps 4 focus for himself.  The Stormclad activates, gains a free focus from Storm Accumulator, advances and shoots a boosted shot into a Bane Knight in the forest, killing it and e-leaping into another, killing it as well.  The Storm Tower on the left shoots and kills the far left Bane knight, and leaps into one more, killing it as well.  The Stormblades assault, killing off the remaining Bane Knights.  Thunderhead advances to cover N3mo from the Arc Node and boosts a shot into Gerlack Slaughterborn.  He boosts the damage and kills Gerlack... but he's Tough!  Spending its last focus it buys and auto-hitting POW 14 and forces Gerlack to roll Tough again... and he does!  Reinholt re-loads N3mo, who then advances and fires into Gerlack Slaughterborn, boosting damage and forcing yet another Tough roll... and he's Tough!  Firing his last shot into the Evil Trollblood, and boosting the damage, Gerlack succumbs to his fate and dies.

The Cryxian forces need to strike now, and so they do.  eGaspy upkeeps Hellbound, advances and feats, summoning back his Spectral Legion.  He then places Daemortus' template over the far right Stormblade and ARCs Parasite into the Stormclad before teleporting back to safety.  Bane Lord Tarterous sees a chance to help out the newly summoned Banes and advances from safety and attempts to curse, but is just short.  The Bane Thralls follow him forward.  The Spectral Legion descend upon the Jacks, wrecking the ARM 19+2-2-3 (16) Stormclad in 3 hits.  The Thunderhead was hit by one attack from a Bane Knight, but that attack still managed to cleave 10 health from it before the Spectral Bane Knight was thrown back and killed due to Electrify.  They also killed the Stormblade, allowing eGaspy yet another soul.  The Cankerwurm advanced and Gorman again dropped smoke for protection.  The Biles milled about in the back rows, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

TURN 6
Realizing that his forces were damaged and that his Stormclad had been destroyed easily, N3mo allocates 2 Focus (3 Focus due to Finch) to the Thunderhead, and his forces rally around him.  N3mo hits the Bonejack with his ranged attack and it leaps into Gorman, killing him.  The Thunderhead advances and Pulses, hitting the DEF 17 Bonejack and a couple auto-hitting shots later and the Chicken is Fried.

eGaspy doesn't have much of an army left at this point, and needs to get the Cankerwurm into position to kill the Thunderhead.  As an act of desparation, he upkeeps Hellbound, and advances while placing 3 Caustic Mist clouds to cover his forces from ranged threats.

TURN 7
N3mo sees his chance for victory, and he allocates 2 focus to Thunderhead (3 from Finch) and activates, using his feat and casting Failsafe on the Thunderhead while holding on to the remainder of his 2 focus in case this fails.  The Stormblades assault, and with great rolling and bravery manage to kill the Dreaded Bane Lord Tarterous with a single Assault shot, as well as another ranged shot on a Thrall (who Toughs it out, but gets pulverized by the melee attack.)  Thunderhead advances into the Caustic mist, taking a point of damage to his Cortex, but he is now within 6" of both eGaspy and the Cankerwurm.  He pulses and boosts damage on eGaspy for 12+4d6, and then follows up with 2 auto-hitting POW 14+3d6 shots, killing off the Lich Lord in a spectacular display of Technological Jubilee.

AFTER THOUGHTS:
I had never really thought about N3mo as an attrition caster, and originally intended to charge forward and go for the throat.  Instead, I played a very conservative and reactionary game against a superior melee threat, which worked out wonderfully.  Because of my opponent's very infantry heavy forces, I believe that N3mo had a very good showing.  He played right into my strengths.  Being able to pretty-much just select which high DEF low ARM models to remove each turn from a considerable distance is as great an ability as it sounds.  If it hadn't been conclusively proven before, I believe N3mo & the fabled Stormwall are the final word stating that Cygnar are the undisputed champions of killing light infantry.  Had my opponent brought a heavier, quicker 'Jack-heavy list, I don't think the game would have been nearly as long, nor as easy for N3mo and his lack of movement enhancing abilities.  Overall, I think my opponent was too cautious, but he hadn't played in quite some time, and didn't even know that N3mo existed prior to our game.  Kudos to him for sticking it out in the heat and humidity for 7 turns, and being a good sport.

Battle Report #1 - 50pt Cygnar (Kara) vs Menoth (eFeora)

Battle Report # 1 - Meeplemart on a Sunday Afternoon

50pt eFeora vs Kara Sloan:

Pre-game thoughts:
-This isn't my first rodeo with Kara Sloan against eFeora.  Nor will it be my last.  This was however a new player, and my first game in quite a while.  I hadn't originally come up with any 50pt lists for Kara for today, and I ended up just throwing together a bunch of models that I had on hand to play a game.  Obvious staples were Reinholt, B13, Squire, etc... but the list I was up against wasn't too similar to the ones that my other friend/opponent tends to field, nor did it look optimized, but it was still potentially frightening to my forces.  This would turn out to be an interesting match with a climactic end.



Kara Sloan (+6)
-Defender (9)
-Defender (9)
-Squire (2)


Stormblades w UA (8)
ATGM w UA (8)
The Black 13th (4)
Storm Tower (2)
Storm Tower (2)
Journeyman Warcaster (3)
Arlan Strangeways (2)
Aiyanna & Holt (4)
Harlan Versh (2)
Reinholt (1)


eFeora (+6)
-Bonded Redeemer (6)
-Castigator (8)
-Crusader (6)
-Repenter (4)
Avatar of Menoth (11)


Choir (max) (3)
Daughters of the Flame (5)
Nicia (3)
Vilmon (3)
Paladin of the Wall (2)
Paladin of the Wall (2)
Vassal Mechanik (1)
Vassal of Menoth (2)




DEPLOYMENT

SR2012 SCENARIO: Distraction

TURN 1:
Like most games of Warmachine, turn one entailed a lot of running.  But there were a few significant moments in Turn 1 that would decide the fate of the game.  The first is, that bonded-Redeemer with auto-fire on the template managed to run forward, get targeted by the Vassal for an Ancillary shot, fire at the Defender in front of Kara, miss because it was just out of range, and then my opponent proceeded to roll a 1 for direction and a 6 for distance, clipping Kara Sloan and instantly lighting her on Fire.  Oh no!  The count-down to her death began Turn 1.  She wouldn't shake the fire for the duration of the match.
The rest of his forces ran, with Nicia running around the House to the Cygnar player's right, and Escort being cast for additional movement.

The Cygnar player advanced, shot a Mage Storm at the Daughters to block off charge lanes, managed to give magical weapons to the Defender which pumped a shot into the Redeemer and cripple his mace with boosted damage.  It was targeted by Arlan for Evasive, and Return Fire should he receive further attention.  Arcane Shield on the Stormblades, Refuge on Kara.

TURN 2:

Turn 2 doesn't go so well for the Menoth Player.  He allocates some focus to the Redeemer, which then peppers both Defenders for little to no damage (but lighting them on fire) and simply advances under Passage.  The Avatar goes to claim to Flag on the Menoth Player's right side, and the Warjacks advance down field.  Vilmon and his Paladins advance up the field and use Stone and Mortar Stance for +5 Arm.  The Daughters Run to engage several Gun Mages and Harlan Versh.  Nicia takes a position to either shoot or charge from behind the house next turn.

Cygnar see's Kara continue to burn (she has taken about 9 damage at this point) and both Defenders go out (though one Stormblade burns to death.)  Kara allocates focus  to each Defender, advances and feats.  She and the Defenders destroy the Redeemer due to A&H's help making the Defender's gun magical.  They also shoot down the Paladin by the Redeemer to the Cygnar Player's right, and even manage to score a few points of damage to the Avatar (which was out of range for Passage.) The B13 activate and between aiming, Black Penny and Boosted to hit, kill 4 of the engaging Daughters of the Flame.  The remaining ATGM advance and kill the rest while Harlan runs around to get into a better position.  Stormblades Assault the Avatar doing a few points of damage with their ranged weapons, and the rest of them simply run into an advantageous position. Refuge sees Kara retreat a little.  I also attempted and failed a cheeky maneuver against Nicia, running one of my Storm Towers 8" towards her, and the shooting it with the other one in order to hit her with the electro-leap.  Unfortunately I bungled it up by keeping my Crew Member just a little bit closer than Nicia was, and so when the Gunner was shot in the back by the Storm Tower that aimed, the e-leap hit the Crew instead.  That'll cost them.

TURN 3:

Nicia starts this turn off with a charge and murders the Stormtower and Crew member.  She then wisely decides not to use Sprint to run forward and vanishes back behind her house.  eFeora allocates enough focus to have her Jacks run into position, and the Choir uses Passage on final time.  The Repenter aims at the close Defender and shoots it with the Flame Thrower, but is only just out of range.  The Avatar can't seem to make his Trample, so it opts to kill a Stormblade and Gaze, while the Paladin advances behind it and uses Stone and Mortar stance in order to prevent the ATGM from pushing the Avatar away.

Kara continues to burn. She allocates a couple focus to Defenders, advances fires a couple times due to Reinholt, reducing the Repenter to slag, heals a couple points of health and retreats.  The JWC then targets her with Arcane Shield to prevent her death.  The Stormblades assault into the Paladin, managing to kill him and hit the Avatar with a couple shots for minimal damage.  The ATGM push the Avatar out of position and knock him down.  Harlan Runs up towards the Choir behind the large house.  The Storm Tower manages to hit and kill some choir members, while the Defenders kill off the Vasal and Vasal Mechanik.

TURN 4:
Finally in a position to deal some serious damage, the Crusader gets loaded up with focus, hit with battle hymn and flies into the Defender, beating it to death with the Inferno Mace.  The rest of his forces advance, with the Avatar standing up and charging back into the Stormblades, killing another 2.  The Castigator looms into position getting ready to counter-attack anything that attacks the Crusader.  Nicia advances and takes a shot at Kara, but misses.

Kara Sloan takes some big damage from Fire this turn, reduced to 4 boxes.  She loads up one Defender with 3 focus, and holds on to the rest.  A&H advance and hit the Crusader with Kiss, and the Defender in turn advances into combat and kills the Crusader to the box with 4 mighty swings of its Cortex Hammer.  Kara Sloan shoots at the Castigator a couple of times and retreats to heal.  The ATGM advance and CRA the Avatar for a few damage points while the Stormblades assault the Avatar and manage to almost wreck the thing with some decent damage rolls. The B13's Brutal Shots then see the Avatar back into the hands of Menoth.  With most of the threats gone, the Menoth Player is relying on the Fire to kill Kara Sloan.


TURN 5:
Since there aren't many options available, eFeora loads up the Castigator with focus and the final Choir member sings the song of Battle.  It charges the Defender and manages to beat it to its knees, leaving it on just a couple boxes in both movement and cannon.  Then eFeora measures her range, camps the rest of her focus, and runs next to the Castigator (and conveniently into cover) after Flame Stepping, in order to get Kara Sloan into her CTRL.  Now the Fire will not go out, and the game could end right here.

Kara Sloan burns again down to 3 life.  The fire will not go out, and she has no where to run.  It's do or die.  eFeora is at an effective DEF of 19, and ARM 19.  This is going to be very difficult.  She camps all 6 focus.  A&H advance and hit the castigator with Kiss, as well as advancing within 5" of Nicia.  One hand cannon shot later and Nicia is no more.  Arlan advances and Evasive's the Defender, who advances away and shoots at the Castigator, dealing little damage.  the remaining Stormblades deal with Vilmon.  The ATGM and B13 advance and with a CRA into eFeora manage to score a few points of damage.  Watts is the only B13 to hit Feora and lands another damage point with an aimed Brutal shot. The Storm Tower shoots the Defender in the back and eLeaps into Feora for 1 points of damage.  Reinholt reloads Kara.  She aims...

...2 Focus for Dead-eye.  Boost to hit.  Roll a 14 on 4d6.  HIT!  Boost Damage... Roll 4d6... Roll a 22!!! POW 34 shot to the face and the game is over.  Kara Sloan is the victor.

After Thoughts:
My opponent played a very good game considering that he has never fought against Kara Sloan before, nor does he have much experience battling Cygnar.  In fact, he's a relatively new player (as can be seen by the sea of Silver/Primed Models he was fielding.)  He was friendly, courteous and seemed to take Page 5 to heart.

Overall, I think I played quite well, and it was nice to see another opportunity to use Arcane Inferno CRA from the ATGM.  It's rare that anyone speaks of, or seems to use this ability, but it's quite useful in the right circumstances.  Furthermore, the B13 really did a bang-up job, as did the Stormblades.  Kara can really make those Stormblades shine during feat turn/with Dead-eye.  Now if only my opponents would stop rolling 1 for Direction and 6 for deviation distance on their first turn... hmmm....

A Warm Welcome

Greetings fellow gamers!

    Like most early blog-casts, this will most likely be an exercise in persistence, willpower, drive, and above all, geek-er-y.  In particular, and with any luck, the last part will be the one that sticks in your mind and brings you crawling back on hands and knees to check out my site at least once a week.  I'd love to be as dedicated as to promise daily updates, but most likely this will be a weekly affair, filled with Battle Reports, progress reports, painting, pictures, and above all information related to the Toronto gaming scene.

    So, grab a coffee, have a quick browse and check out whatever it is you fancy.

    Sincerely,

       b-Stryker